Pope Francis Preparatory School

Cathedral High School was a Catholic co-educational college-preparatory high school in Springfield, Massachusetts. Originally opened in 1883 by the Sisters of Saint Joseph at the diocese's Saint Michael's Cathedral. In 2011 the school's building was destroyed by a tornado. In 2015, it was announced that Cathedral High School would merge with Holyoke Catholic High School to form a new regional Catholic school that was completed in 2016 as Pope Francis High School. Pope Francis High School was then later renamed "Pope Francis Preparatory School." The school's current building is on the site of the original Cathedral High School. History Cathedral High School In 1883, the diocese's Bishop Patrick Thomas O'Reilly sought a teaching staff for a high school in response to the growing number of Catholic immigrants in the area. Responding to the call, two members of the Sisters of St. Joseph from Flushing, New York came to Springfield to start up the school. In the years that followed Cathedral High School flourished in facilities on Elliot Street in downtown Springfield. By the 1940s the school had grown to nearly 1600 students. The school had outgrown its facilities, so the Diocese purchased a 30-acre (121,000 m2) farm on Surrey and Wendover Roads in Springfield and built a new school. It opened on September 9, 1959. In the first decade at Surrey Road student enrollment grew to more than 2600 students.