St. Benedict the Moor High School was established in 1935 by Fr. Philip Steffes,
OFM Cap, the pastor of St. Benedict the Moor Parish, a mostly
African American community.[2] It served both boarding and day high school students, many of whom came from St. Benedict the Moor Elementary School, the other parish school. Demographic changes and the construction of an expressway during the 1960s caused the parish membership and its schools' enrollment to severely decline. St. Benedict the Moor High School closed in 1964.[2]
St. Benedict the Moore Elementary School,
Milwaukee St. Benedict the Moor Elementary School was established in 1912 by Fr. Stephen Eckert,
OFM Cap, the pastor of St. Benedict the Moor Parish, a mostly African American community. It served both boarding and day high school students. By 1935, there were 141 boarders and 130 day students (99% of whom were not Catholic), and a faculty of 22
Racine Dominican Sisters.[2] The boarding school program was ended in 1954 at the request of the nuns, who could no longer service it.[2] Demographic changes and the construction of an expressway during the 1960s caused the parish membership and its schools' enrollment to severely decline.[2] St. Benedict the Moor Elementary School closed in 1967 after losing half its property to the expressway.[2]
St. Casimir School,
Milwaukee St. Casimir School was established by Fr. Giles Tarasiewicz, the first pastor of the newly created
Polish St. Casimir Parish.[3] He and other parishioners set out to address their largest concern: the lack of a parochial school to educate the parish's many youth.[3] The building was designed by architect
Henry Messmer and was constructed from 1893-1894.[3] The building is three stories tall, built of cream brick in the
VictorianRomanesque Revival style with a
hip roof and asphalt shingles.[3] It opened for classes in 1894, and also housed the
School Sisters of Notre Dame, who taught at the school, as well as holding Sunday Masses in its gymnasium.[3] The school population continued to increase in size along with the parish, so in 1910 two-story cream brick addition was added to the back of the building, designed by Herman J. Esser.[3] Starting in the 1950s, the parish and school began seeing a decline in population. St. Casimir School was closed in the 1970s due to declining enrollment and a lack of teachers.[3]
St. John de Nepomuc Elementary School,
Milwaukee St. John de Nepomuc Elementary School was established in 1927 and served the children of parishioners of the Bohemian and German-speaking St. John de Nepomuc Parish.[5] It opened with four classrooms and was staffed by School Sisters of Notre Dame.[5] This soon became too crowded, and in 1955, a new school building opened to hold the burgeoning number of pupils.[5] By the 1980s, the St. John's was thriving, but the parish was struggling to pay its bills and was being subsidized by the school.[5] In 1985 the Archdiocese demoted St. John's parish to a chapel, and closed the school for good.[5]