Holy Rosary Restoration fund push begins
LAFAYETTE — A group working to restore the historic Holy Rosary Institute launched a campaign Thursday to raise money to stabilize the deteriorating main schoolhouse — a project that could cost upwards of $1 million.
The African-American parochial school off Carmel Drive opened in 1913 and accepted boarding students from across the country through decades when black students had few options for a good education under segregated school systems.
The school closed in 1993, and the main three-story brick school building has sat vacant since then, slowly crumbling as a small group of community members worked to save it.
“It’s been a struggle for us — ups and downs — but we did not give up,” said Gloria Linton, who attended Holy Rosary in the 1940s.
She and a handful of others began working more than a decade ago to find a way to restore the old building, which is on the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation’s Top 10 list of most-endangered historic sites.
Linton said the biggest development in the restoration effort came late in 2010, when the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette agreed to transfer ownership of the property to the Sisters of the Holy Family, a New Orleans-based order of nuns.
Linton said the diocese had always been reluctant to get involved in a major restoration project, but the Sisters of the Holy Family, which had once operated the school, have taken an active interest.
The first goal is to raise the estimated $850,000 to $1 million needed to stabilize the building, said Mike Stagg, who is on the board overseeing the redevelopment project.
There has been talk in the past of using the old school for a community center or possibly as a site for health-care services, but Stagg said the focus at this time is simply to keep the building from falling in on itself.
“If we don’t save the building, it doesn’t matter what the plans are,” Stagg said.
Newly elected state Reps. Terry Landry, D-Lafayette, and Vincent Pierre, D-Lafayette, both attended an event on Thursday to mark the launch of the fundraising campaign and said they will seek out state resources to aid in the restoration effort.
“I think the mission of restoring this wonderful high school is achievable,” said Pierre, who graduated from Holy Rosary in 1983.
Landry said the current condition of the historic school is “embarrassing.”
“This is unbelievable that this building has been allowed to get into this condition,” he said.
A fundraiser for the Holy Rosary restoration project is set for Feb. 26 at the Petroleum Club in Lafayette.
Xavier University President Norman Francis is scheduled to speak.
Tickets are $40 per person and available at the main branch of MidSouth Bank at Versailles Boulevard and St. John Street in Lafayette.
For more information, contact Gloria Linton at , Mary Goody at or Mike Stagg at.
