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The groundbreaking ceremony occurred on 9 September 1955. Work concentrated on the east side classroom wings which were ready for students at the beginning of the 1957-1958 school year. The western portion of the building was completed in 1958 and the grand opening festivities occurred for Kenosha’s largest school between 15 and 19 October of that year. Once fully opened, the school consisted of forty-one classrooms, 1,022-seat auditorium, a separate 200-seat theater, 2,000-seat gymnasium, library, four science laboratories, four business classrooms, home economic lab, music room and a cafeteria. The fourth floor was reserved as the living quarters for the nuns assigned to the school. The convent area included fifty small bedrooms, communal study room, recreation room, kitchen, bathrooms and a rooftop veranda. A 100-seat chapel on the second floor was also reserved for the nuns, as well as staff.
Enrollment for the 1958-1959 school year was 814. Rev. Leslie A. Darnieder was the principal who headed a teaching staff consisting of 23 nuns from the School Sisters of St. Francis, seven lay teachers and nine priests from the local parishes. Academic departments consisted of English, science, religion, mathematics, social studies, commercial/business, languages, home economics, art, music and physical education. St. Joseph operated as a four-year Catholic high school until 2010, when it was combined with St. Mark the Evangelist Elementary School and St. Joseph Interparish Junior High School for form the St. Joseph Catholic Academy. Today, its enrollment stands at about 800 students.
Finger-plan school layout; glass-and-panel curtain walls; Indiana and Kasota limestone panels.
National And State Register Of Historic Places Listings
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