Catliolic Ed1'cational Endeavors
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Congregation and in the Indulgence granted by the Roman Pontiffs to the Dominican Order. 91 Year by year the Academy in Galveston grew and developed. The severe storm of 1915 temporarily retarded it as regarding boarding students. In 1923 the high school division was fully accredited by the State Depart- ment of Education. Members of the community have attended colleges and universities in the North, South, and East, as well as the State to keep abreast of the most recent trends in education. St. Dominic's Villa and Academy in Lampasas, 1900. After the severe storm of 1900, the Dominican Sisters rented old Centenary College in Lampasas as a temporary rest home. Feeling that a boarding school in Galveston was impractical in view of the severe storms, Lampasas sug- gested itself as a more suitable place. Sisters Mary Catherine and Mary Thomas were sent before the end of the year to purchase and named St. Dominic's Villa Academy. This was an arduous and daring undertaking in a small town that had only a few Catholic students, and where prejudice was strong. In spite of adverse conditions it succeeded and grew steadily until the Ku Klux Klan and the aroused wave of prejudice that swept Texas in the years after World War I caused it to close in 1925. "Thus passed from the list of educational institutions one Academy whose memory lies enshrined in the hearts of all the pupils and teachers" who had the privilege of having studied or taught within its halls.n St. Agnes Academy, H0t1-ston, 1906. This school was opened on Feb- ruary 11, 1906, at the insistence of many leading families in Houston who desired the Dominican Sisters to come. Its beautiful new building was erected at the intersection of Fannin and Isabella Streets before South Houston was much developed. It was solemnly blessed by Bishop Gallagher and it prospered from the first. In the fall of 1917 the Academy affiliated with the University of Texas and was approved by the State Department of Education. In the first quarter century its enrollment grew from seventy to two hundred and seventy, of which fifty were non-Catholic. In addition to the regular grammar and high school subjects, Music, Art, Home Economics, and Commercial courses are offered. Its library is well stocked and the science laboratories are entirely modern. Parochial Scliool Work, 1887-1931. In addition to the two academies, the Dominican Sisters have taken a most active interest in helping out in 91 Father Andrew Fruhwirth to Bishop Gallagher, Rome, June 23, 1902. Printed in M. Veronica, 01. &it., 23. ' 2 Sister M. Veronica, 01. cit., 48.
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