

After former Gilman School coach Biff Poggi took over as head coach, he began aggressively recruiting talented players from inside and outside Maryland, to a greater degree than other private schools in the state did. Frances' football program has become the subject of controversy within Maryland in the late 2010s. The community center was originally named after her and her husband, but his name was removed after the revelation of multiple sexual offenses.

Frances Academy in building a community center in East Baltimore. In 2012, Camille Cosby, an alumna of a school in Washington run by the Oblates, and her husband Bill Cosby made a donation to assist St. The student population is still predominantly African-American.īill and Camille Cosby donations Independently owned and operated by the Oblates, the school is approved by the Maryland State Department of Education and is accredited by the Commission on Secondary Schools of the regional agency of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. The school now offers a traditional, co-educational, college-preparatory curriculum for students in grades nine through twelve.Īn honors program is available to select students and all students complete a community service component.

The high school began admitting boys in the 1970s. In 1871, the school moved to its current location in inner East Baltimore at 501 East Chase Street in what is now the Johnston Square neighborhood. Frances of Rome (1384–1440), and later shortened and elevated to the Saint Frances Academy. The school graduated its first class with ceremonies in 1832.īy 1853, the school changed its name from the Oblate School for Colored Girls to the Saint Frances School for Colored Girls, named after St. The following year in 1829, the school taught out of 610 George Street and then 48 Richmond Street (now West Read Street), a few blocks away. It was established with the mission to teach "children of color to read the Bible" -which, since it included teaching slaves, was at the time illegal.

Mary's Seminary and College, then located on North Paca Street, the first Catholic seminary in America, founded 1791. Mary's Court in Baltimore's Seton Hill neighborhood, northwest of downtown, near St. On June 13, 1828, the Oblate School for Colored Girls opened for its first year at 5 St.
BIFF POGGI FREE
(There were no free public schools for children of color in Baltimore until 1866.) Mother Mary Lange recognized the need for education for African American children and opened a school for them in her home in the Fells Point area of the city. While providing a valuable service, they could not meet the demands of Baltimore’s growing free African-American population. James Protestant Episcopal Day School (1824), and William Lively’s Union Seminary (1825) created schools for African-American students. In the early 1800s, various Protestant organizations in Baltimore such as Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church’s Free African School (1802), Daniel Coker’s Bethel Charity School (c. Founded in 1828, it is the first and oldest continually operating Black Catholic educational facility in the United States. Saint Frances Academy is an independent Catholic high school in Baltimore, Maryland. Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
