St. Mary’s in Manhasset is celebrating its middle school’s centennial and high school’s 75th anniversary by renovating their campus for the upcoming school year.
Over the summer the high school will expand into the third floor of Marist Hall, where the brothers of Marist Order previously stayed, and will be implementing a new Catholic Entrepreneurship and Design Experience program.
“At its core, CEDE is an education in discerning desires,” Father Dom Elias Carr, president of the high school, said in a statement. “As the students come to better understand their motivations – what they want – CEDE also inspires them to think about how they can use their gifts and desires to respond creatively to needs in our society.”
Middle schoolers will relocate to Immaculata Hall, which used to be the all-girls high school. Sixth, seventh and eighth graders will have their dedicated space that will “strike the perfect balance for young people at a critical time in their development,” the parish said.
With the additional space, the elementary school will be renovating the middle-school wing into resource rooms, dedicated spaces for reading, math, movement and other “enrichment activities.”
A pre-nursery school program will also be soft-launched next year in the elementary school, the parish said. It will serve infants, toddlers and their parents and caregivers in weekly classes.
Each building will also feature a chapel to be constructed this summer.
“We are very excited that our young people will have more time for prayer in the presence of our Lord,” Carr said.
St. Mary’s was originally named St. Michael’s in Flushing, starting in 1853, which was a mission church before relocating to Plandome Road in 1857. The present-day church on Northern Boulevard was dedicated in 1917.
The church regained its independence in 1912, marked by the arrival of Rev. William K. Dwyer, who built both the rectory and church.
St. Mary’s first parochial school opened for classes on Feb. 1, 1926. The original high school, which was completed in 1950, later became an all-girls school after the all-boys school was built.
