Loretto Academy | |
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Address | |
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1300 Hardaway Street , , 79903 United States | |
Coordinates | 31°47′10″N 106°26′5″W / 31.78611°N 106.43472°W |
Information | |
Type | Private, All-Girls for grades 6-12 |
Motto | A Tradition Of Excellence/ Let Loretto Be Loretto Foever |
Religious affiliation(s) | Roman Catholic |
Established | 1923 |
Founder | Mother M. Praxedes Carty |
President | Nicole Ortega Cobb |
Principal | High School: Homero Silva Middle School: Mary Ann Olivas |
Grades |
Pre-K–
12 (Boys PreK-5, girls all grades) |
Color(s) | Yellow, Black and White |
Slogan | Four Core Values: Faith, Community, Justice & Respect |
Mascot | Angels |
Accreditation | Southern Association of Colleges and Schools [1] |
Newspaper | The Prax |
Affiliation | Sisters of Loretto |
Elementary Principal | Norma Lopez |
Athletic Director | Angela Glover |
Architects | Trost & Trost |
Website | http://www.loretto.org |
Loretto Academy is a private Roman Catholic school in El Paso, Texas. It was opened in 1923 and was founded by Mother M. Praxedes Carty. is a part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of El Paso. Grades Pre-K3-5 are coeducational, while grades 6-12 are all girls. [2]
The Sisters of Loretto had previously established several schools in Las Cruces and El Paso. [3] [4] In the early 1920s, Mother M. Praxedes Carty of the Sisters of Loretto came to El Paso to establish a new school. [5] On March 20, 1922, she purchased 19 acres of land in the Austin Terrace area, which was considered a bad place to put the school. [6] [7] The area was open desert on a hilltop and was accessible by streetcar. [8] For the time period, it was considered to be a long distance from the downtown area. [6] Because of the location, people were unsure if parents would send their children to the school. [8] People began to call the project "Praxedes' Folly." [8]
The building was designed by Trost & Trost. [9] Gustavus A. Trost was friends with Mother Praxedes and may have done most of the primary architectural drawings. [10] The buildings were "designed to face Mexico" in a welcoming gesture for all people to join the community. [4] They were built using stuccoed brick and red Spanish tile on the roof. [9] The first building was started in the fall of 1922. [11] The cornerstone for the chapel was laid down on March 20, 1924. [7] The entire campus was not complete until the 1930s. [9] However, the first school building was ready in 1923. Loretto Academy in El Paso opened on September 11, 1923 with 186 students, of which 20 lived at the school as boarders. [7] In 1928, the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools admitted Loretto as a member. [12]
The boarding school closed in 1975. [13] Students from Ciudad Juarez also attend the school. [4] As of the early 1990s the school had over 900 students. [14]
After 22 years, in 2022, Sister Mary E. "Buffy" Boesen stepped down as president of Loretto. [15] Loretto alumna, Nicole Ortega Cobb, became the next president of the school in June 2022. [15]