HOULTON, Maine — Jessica Grant of Houlton can still remember the squeaks and creaks that she heard each morning as the junior high students headed single file up the staircase of the former St. Mary’s Catholic School.
“That old stairway was so old and narrow,” she said. “And the boards would be creaking beneath our feet all the way up to the top as our teachers herded us into our classrooms. I can still hear it every time I think of that school.”
Grant was one of a number of students who looked back fondly on St. Mary’s 25 years after the last Catholic school to operate north of Bangor closed in 1994.
“I was really sad when they decided to shut the doors,” said Grant. “By that time, I had been out of school for 20 years, but it was so upsetting to lose that piece of history.”
Founded in 1911, St. Mary’s was located in the former Mansur House. The three story dwelling served as a convent for the Sisters of Mercy, who taught the students.
The school functioned as a private academy for 14 years until 1925, when it became a free parish school. Responsibility for its operation was then assumed by St. Mary’s Church.
In 1937, the church bought the former Houlton Post Office, a red brick structure located just across the lot from the Mansur House. That is where they educated the junior high students.
Mary Hazelton, a former Houlton resident who now lives in Hartford, Connecticut, also attended the school. She said Wednesday that she has fond memories of being educated by the nuns in classes that sometimes had as few as eight students.
“I just loved it there,” she recalled. “I have five siblings, and we all went there. There was no gymnasium, so we had to walk over to [the former] Lambert School to take gym class, and there was no cafeteria, so we got hot lunches delivered to us from the Houlton school district.”
In the 1980’s, the school began to see a decline in enrollment. At the same time, their buildings began to fall into disrepair. The school board voted to eliminate the seventh and eighth grade in 1991, and also instituted a staff reduction and a multi-grade classroom program. In 1992, classes were consolidated into one building.
By 1994, there were just 59 pupils and four teachers at the school, and operating costs had continued to increase. After more than 82 years, the doors were finally closed that June.
Karen Moody, a former St. Mary’s student who now lives in Presque Isle, said she was “very sad” when the school closed. She said the small class sizes allowed students to form close, lifelong friendships, and take unique courses such as sign language and pottery.
“I attended that school, and I always thought that I would send my own children there,” she said Wednesday.
After the school closed, the Mansur building was purchased by Tony Bowers, who renovated the structure and opened Bowers Funeral Home. It continues to operate at that location.
