St. Stephen Protomartyr Catholic School

History of St. Stephen Protomartyr School

Fifteen months after the founding of the parish on undeveloped land purchased from the Missouri-Pacific Railroad, St. Stephen Protomartyr School opened its doors for the first time in a temporary one-room frame building near Wilmington Avenue and Livingston Drive in September 1927. Twenty children of various ages received a faith-based education in a single classroom by the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood under the leadership of Sister Loyola Kohnen, the first principal.

 Realtor and parishioner William Federer led the development of the Holly Hills neighborhood. The new homes – and St. Stephen School – began to fill with families. By the start of the 1931-32 school year, the present-day school building was complete and ready to welcome the children of the growing parish.

 Students from that era remember walking home for lunch and having outdoor recess in a dirt school yard with big trees. School uniforms were navy and white. The annual school picnic happened at Carondelet Park, where students enjoyed lemonade and ice cream, and rowboat rides in Boat Lake for a dime.

In the 1940s, students collected scrap metal for the war effort, making a pile on the east lot a story high. After the war, one of the parish priests organized the first CYC at St. Stephen for high-school-aged boys and girls, beginning organized athletics at our school. CYC sports soon expanded to the elementary grades; by the mid-1960s our youngest athletes were competing in the Judge Dowd Soccer League.

The first Home & School Association met in 1954. In 1963, the picnic returned to the parish grounds on the second Wednesday each June, with a parade led by St. Stephen’s very own marching band. Parents and parishioners established Scout troops for both boys and girls, which flourished during the 1960s and 1970s.

By the 1960s, the parish had grown from fifty families at its founding to more than 1,000 families. The school, with more than 400 students, was growing beyond its capacity. Parishioners raised funds for a new church building, and the school expanded into the old church. For the first time, the school had a library and a public-address system. In 1968, the principal was finally relieved of teaching and could administer the school full-time. The school incorporated the red plaid into its uniform colors.

While there were always a few lay teachers in the early days of the school, by the 1970s, they made up the majority of the faculty. By the early 1980s, there were no more Sisters on staff. The former convent building now houses St. Stephen’s preschool classrooms, band room, and the learning center.

The 1980s introduced a robust music program and ongoing traditions like the eighth-grade play and sixth-grade camp. The first computers came on the scene. Soon there was a dedicated computer lab, then rolling laptop carts, then Smart TVs in every classroom, Chromebooks and iPads available to all students, and a competitive robotics program. The school mascot Sharkey made his debut in the 1990s. A capital campaign at the turn of the century funded a new gymnasium and supported the addition of a preschool program.

As part of its recently implemented five-year strategic plan, St. Stephen has expanded its scholarship funds, piloted a summer camp program in 2024, and is now looking forward to expanding its preschool program to two-year-olds. Primary classroom aides ensure that the youngest students get off to a strong start; learning consultants are available to students of all ages.

Over the years, as nearby parishes have closed or merged, our school has increasingly drawn students from a radius much wider than the Holly Hills neighborhood it originally served. All of our students, whether Catholic or not, are challenged to lead loving lives of service. Graduation finds them heading off to succeed in high schools all around the St. Louis region. St. Stephen School is proud of each one of the 3,025 students who have passed through its halls over the last one hundred years. May God continue to bless us.