Honoring Catholic education in the Treasure Valley, Saint Teresa's Academy 1890-1964
Continuing at Bishop Kelly High School
On August 24, 1889, five nuns arrived in Boise to open a high school. These Sisters of the Holy Cross – Mary Dominica, Digna, Edith, Columbina and Marcus – christened the new school St. Teresa’s Academy (STA) and began teaching young women in September 1889. St. Teresa’s concluded its first year on June 25, 1890, with approximately 60 pupils having attended.
In March 1890, with the help of the Bishop and the Mother House, the sisters purchased a block of land at 4th and State Street. The parcel included several buildings that would serve as the school until the brick Academy was built in 1903.
In 1933, the boys attending high school at St. Joseph’s joined the girls at St. Teresa’s, making the Academy co-ed. With the boys came a robust athletic program and increased interest in service organizations. Football was a particular favorite of the STA crowd.
St. Teresa’s Academy served as Boise’s only Catholic high school until the spring of 1964, when the sisters determined that the repairs and upkeep necessary to maintain the old building were too great for them to manage. That fall, Bishop Kelly High School opened in a rural area southwest of town. Many of the sisters and nearly all of the students from St. Teresa’s made the move to Boise’s new Catholic high school, which still educates students today in the Catholic tradition – Spirit, Mind, and Body.
Read more about St. Teresa’s Academy, now Bishop Kelly High School.
Donors:
Edwin and Leilani Davis
Keith Kiler
Karl and Carol Holsinger
Mary Ann Wartman
Jody Stroup
Diane Bird
Donna Baggett
James Pearson
Margaret Henggeler
Sandra Kantack
Annette Parks
Joan Hart
Louie Echevarria
Joan Pew
Valerie Pease
Jan Hammer
Melvin Weaver
Mary Caravalho
Phil Uberuaga
Barbara Valdez
Pamela Draper
Robert Strahler
Gordon Pirrong
Pamela Hazard
Carole Cox
Mary Murakami
Caroline Stanford
Sharon Rau
Daniel Yribat
Frances Batt
Melvin Schulte
Jude Gary
Dave and Diane Myklegard
Jodi Reynolds
Marvin and Karen Hintz