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Eighth Grade Graduation, 1949

Top Row: Fred Fendt, Ray Stangler, Francis Pitterle, James Neumann, Paul Monzel, Dana Kellerman, Jerome David, Ben Miller

Third Row: Lurae Pitterle, Joanne Peirick, Donna Murray, Elmer Hartman, Robert Kehr, Tom Sterwald, Lorraine
Richter, Rita Hoffer, Luella Kennedy

Second Row: Joann Oestreich, Ann Perry, Rose Mary Berg, Barb Jurick, Mary Jo Euper, Lois Nistler, Betty Griep,
Sandra Meitner

Front Row: Agatha Meyer, Margaret Hady, Gladys French, Father Brechtel, Father Foltz, Loretta Heiden, Mary Aschenbrenner, Nancy Winkler

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School and Convent, just prior to their demolition 1952

Above photo is from digitally stitching two different photos together

As a consequence Suzanne and Sharon Stangler miraculously

appear in front of the school and in front of the Sister’s House

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The supervised hot lunch program was introduced into the school in 1951.

In the 1950’s upper class students along with their teachers gathered on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison each May where they took part in the annual radio music festival.

Those from St. Henry’s who took part in 1951 were: Mathilda Aschenbrenner, Joyce Bohmsack, Lucille Boje, Janet Borazo, Dick David, Dolores David, Daniel David, Karen Frederick, Gay Graves, Rita Haberkorn, Louis Hady, Marialyce Hartmann, Jean Hartmann, Joan Hartung, Marlene Heck, Theresa Hemp, Mary Lou Hoffer, Agnes Hoffer, Audrey Hoffer, Tom Kaul, Mary Kellerman, Patricia Kennedy, James Klecker, Jack Klecker, Marilyn Koser, Patricia Koshelnick, Florence Kreuziger, Margaret Kreuziger, Teresa Kreuziger, Patricia Krueger, Barbara Nickels, Joan Nimm, Helen Perry, Joseph Pfeifer, Paul Reichardt, John Reichardt, Leah Rae Richter, Carolyn Richter, Ruth Schwenker, Patricia Stangler, Arlene Templeton, Patricia Timm, Donna Mae Welsch, and Carol Werneburg.

School and church, 1952

The convent, occupied by the nuns and which until the spring of 1952 adjoined the school, was razed to make room for the new school building. In anticipation, the congregation had purchased the Florence Koser home at 408 North Fifth Street in 1951, one block from the church, in order to provide living quarters for the teaching sisters.

Two blocks east of the church, a brick-paved street, with a Moravian church on one corner and a Lutheran church on the other, provided the setting for St. Henry’s convent. Visitors not expecting the convent to be the white house with the large screened front porch were known to drive right past it. Originally a two-family house, it was purchased for the sisters. Exchanging recipes with a back-fence neighbor, eating dinner on the porch on hot summer days, and making friends with the neighborhood tricycle set gave convent life there a flavor of hominess.

The work of demolishing the school and convent structures was done by Maas Brothers Construction of Watertown. The firm also disposed of the materials; none were utilized in the new building.

While the new school was being erected on the site of the previous one, the congregation rented the old Webster School building on Western Avenue on July 1 of 1952 and used it for its school for the 1952-53 academic year under an agreement reached with the city. The timing was ideal as the old Webster had just been vacated at the end of the 1951-52 school year and the city public school relocated to the new Webster School.

The terms for the occupancy were to run one year, but the agreement between the City of Watertown and the parish could have been renewed at the end of that time. The congregation maintained the building, including the utilities such as janitor service, heating and lighting, water and so forth and paid for the upkeep of insurance and provided any necessary equipment.

Father Herrmann, at the time a newcomer to the parish and also to Watertown, expressed gratitude for the cooperation he received from the Watertown Board of Education and the city administration in making the old school available to the parish while the new parish school was under construction.

Also in 1952, options on three residential proper-ties in the 400 block of North Third Street, west of the old school building, were bought as part of the plans for replacing the old school with a new (the current) building. The properties were those at 404, 410, and 414 North Third.

The old 1879 school building consisted of four large rooms for grades 1-8. When this building was demolished in June 1952, workers of the Maas Brothers said they were amazed to find the quantity of solid materials and quality of workmanship that went into the old building.

Work on the new school began in August of 1952 with excavations for the new building.

Favorable fall weather and a mild winter with little snow allowed for continuation of the work and its rapid progress.

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