Humble Beginnings

Founded in 1899, Holy Family School is Tulsa’s first Catholic school.

Mother Katharine Drexel, heiress to a banking fortune, lent $1,500 to build and staff a little school at Third and Elgin. The school opened its doors on September 11, 1899 to about eighty students.

The Sisters of Mount Carmel taught at the school for several years. Sister Mary Agnes described the building in her diary:

Our school was a parochial elementary school. The school and convent were a single, very plain, frame building with just sufficient space to accommodate the number of sisters and pupils at the time. The convent provided a small chapel, a parlor, a community recreation room, a laundry, a pantry, and a dining room on the first floor.

The Discovery of Oil Led to Substantial Growth

The discovery of oil in 1901 led to a massive immigration of Irish oil workers. They filled the pews of Holy Family Church and filled the classrooms of Holy Family School. By 1910, more than 4,000 Tulsa Catholics called Holy Family their home parish. Despite being expanded to seat 350, the original church was inadequate to serve the growing population. Demand for a Catholic education far exceeded the original school’s capacity.

Clearly, something had to be done.

In 1914, the parish built a new and larger church at 8th & Boulder. The Sisters continued to teach in the original school building until 1920 when a new school was built beside the new church.

The School at 8th & Boulder

The iconic Holy Family school building featured a convent on the top floor and three stories of classroom space below. Holy Family educated thousands of young Tulsans in its first century.

In 1917, Holy Family parish had grown to more than 6,000 parishioners. The bishop created Sacred Heart parish and school, now known as Christ the King Catholic Church and Marquette School. As Tulsa continued to grow, several more daughter parishes were created including Saint Catherine of Alexandria parish, the Church of Saint Mary, St. Pius X, St. Bernard’s, and Resurrection.

 

Downtown Tulsa Becomes a Business District

By the middle of the twentieth century, downtown Tulsa had fewer neighborhoods and more skyscrapers.

The change in downtown introduced significant changes for Holy Family’s church and school. No longer did families walk to Holy Family on Sunday mornings to attend Mass. Holy Family parishioners lived in the suburbs like everyone else in Tulsa.

During this time, the decision was made to open Bishop Kelley High School and to close Holy Family High School and Marquette High School. Consolidating resources allowed Holy Family and Marquette to focus on elementary education, and helped set up Bishop Kelley High School for success.

 

Rediscovering Classical, Catholic Education

Without a neighborhood to support Holy Family school, patrons became more important. The unwavering generosity of Friends of Catholic Education, the Diocese of Tulsa, and other patrons subsidized the school often during difficult times.

Recently, the school changed its curriculum to return to the classical, Catholic education that Saint Katharine Drexel envisioned when she founded the school twelve decades earlier.