Xavier High School

1847 - present

In 1847 Father John Larkin, S.J. opened the College of the Holy Name of Jesus at 180 Walker Street. In 1850 it moved to W.16th Street in Chelsea and was renamed the College of St. Francis Xavier. This Jesuit boys’ school educated students from elementary age through college, growing to the largest Jesuit college in the United States by 1900. In 1912 the college portion split off and joined with Fordham University in the Bronx, leaving the Chelsea campus to become Xavier High School. Since then, Xavier has been a well-known Jesuit school, still only open to boys, with a special emphasis on sports as well as military training and the programing of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. Despite the wishes of early educators at Xavier to make the school free and open to all, the school continues to charge a high tuition. In the 1930s, Jesuit community leaders operated the Xavier Institute of Industrial Relations, an anti-communist, pro-union training program for adult workers, out of the school building. It also served as a community meeting space for church youth groups, who regularly used the school gym.

College of St. Francis Xavier
Xavier High School
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Details

Category
School
Instructional Level
High School
Founder(s)
Father John Larkin
Corporate Body
Society of Jesus
Tags
Catholic, boys, military, Jesuit

Connections

Location

  • 30 W 16th St, New York, NY 10011, USA
    1850 - present
  • 127-199 Walker St, New York, NY 10013, USA
    1847 - 1850

Archival Collections

References

  1. Andreassi, Anthony. Teach Me to Be Generous: The First Century of Regis High School in New York City. Bronx: Fordham University Press, 2014.
  2. “Colleges May Unite: Fordham and St. Francis Xavier’s to Merge the Higher Departments.” New York Times. July 17, 1912. http://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/97284895?accountid=10226.
  3. Fisher, James T. On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2010.
  4. Klein, Christa Ressmeyer. “The Jesuits and Catholic Boyhood in Nineteenth-Century New York City: A Study of St. John’s College and the College of St. Francis Xavier, 1846-1912.” PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1976.
  5. “Notes of Events in the Local Schools.” New York Times. October 11, 1936. http://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/101614914?accountid=10226.
  6. Shelly, Thomas J. Fordham, A History of the Jesuit University of New York: 1841-2003. Fordham University Press, 2016. Fordham Scholarship Online, 2017. doi: 10.5422/fordham/9780823271511.001.0001.
  7. "The Cadet Corps of St. Francis Xavier College is a Picturesque and Popular Feature of that Big Institution.” New York Tribune, December 28, 1902. http://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/571176143?accountid=10226.
  8. The College of St. Francis Xavier: A Memorial and a Retrospect, 1847-1897. New York: Meany, 1897.
  9. The Encyclopedia of New York City, 2nd ed. Ed. Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.
  10. Xavier High School. Evening Parade. New York, NY: 1941-2016. Xavier High School Website. https://issuu.com/xavierhs. Accessed April 18, 2018.