Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, May 11, 2000
The Southern Cross, Page 7
Halls that once echoed the sounds of
Benedictine Cadets will have a new
sound in August of2001—that of
Notre Dame Academy youngsters
attending classes in the newly reno
vated building.
By Marcus Holland
D r. Paul Jurgensen, class of ‘56,
still gets chill bumps when he
passes the old Benedictine Military
School building on Bull Street.
Benedictine was “the most incredi
ble experience of my life,” Jurgensen
said recently. “The whole experience.
It’s so difficult to try to explain ...
friendships molded there last a life
time.”
A graduate of the 1940s and ‘50s
could talk with graduates of 1920s
and still have much in common, he
said.
In Jurgensen’s opinion, the planned
renovation of the old BC building—
to provide a new home for Notre
Dame Academy—is a great idea.
The Catholic Diocese of Savannah
is about to launch a $1.3 million ren
ovation to transform the old building,
which is filled with so many memo
ries for graduates like Jurgensen, into
a place where new memories will be
made.
It is hoped that work on the build
ing will be complete in time for the
Notre Dame Academy school year
that opens in August of 2001.
That’s music to Jurgensen’s ears.
He said he is “always happy to see
the school still standing” when he
passes. “When I go past BC, the
memories overwhelm me,” he said.
Building on Memories: Notre Dame Academy
w Jf --— ■■ ■ ■ . fp.v 1
A view of a Sacred Heart classroom before renovation.
“The campus has changed somewhat.
Buildings are in the area where I used
to walk jug. It was just a wonderful
school with wonderful young men.”
Jurgensen, an outstanding athlete at
the school, is fondly called “Jugger”
by his many friends. He got the name
because he was a familiar sight,
almost every afternoon, walking
“jug” in the courtyard between the
school and Sacred Heart Church.
“I kept telling the priest how to run
things,” he quipped. “They were not
too receptive to what I had to say.”
“Jug,” he pointed out, was a pun
ishment detail to reduce a cadet’s
demerits. It took an hour of jug to
reduce a cadet’s demerit total by one.
“It was a lot easier to get into jug
than it was to get out of it,” he said.
“But a number of people who walked
jug turned out to be pretty good peo
ple. I learned to conform to the prin
ciples of the school.”
The building was a wonderful place
to be, he said.
“It was cold in the winter and hot
in the summer,” he said. “Wearing
those wool pants was something to
remember, especially in the summer.
But there was a lot of fellowship over
there.”
Father Al’s (Aloysius Wachter)
chemistry class, Jurgensen said with
a chuckle, was a real experience.
“The back legs of each desk had to
be on a line he had drawn on the
floor,” Jurgensen said. “If your desk’s
back legs were behind the line or in
front of it, you would get cracked on
the back of the head in short order,
with whatever he had in his hand.”
He also recalled that Father Alcuin
Baudermann was a wonderful person
and a good chemistry instructor.
“He carried a drum stick in his
hand and oftenmsed it to play a tune
The class of ‘52 was particularly
unique, Fitzpatrick said, pointing out
that three of his classmates went on
to become priests. Father Richard
Canty remains in Savannah, but
Father Lawrence Lucree is in Colum
bus and Augustine Cunningham be
came a Benedictine priest and is serv
ing in Richmond, Virginia.
Fitzpatrick, like Jurgensen, walked
jug occasionally. “There was an occa
sion or two that my name was on the
jug list... more so as a freshman,” he
said.
Memories are plentiful, Fitzpatrick
said.
“One day,” he recalled, “a student
set off a tear gas bomb in the school.
Everybody in the classroom sat there
with tears streaming down their
faces. We just sat there. I don’t know
if they wouldn’t let us out or we were
Saint John the Baptist.
Notre Dame opened in 1990, when
Cathedral Day School and Sacred
Heart merged. It serves Savannah’s
three predominantly African-
American Catholic parishes, and
most recently Sacred Heart and
Cathedral parishes.
This year, Notre Dame has 166 stu
dents. Moving to the old BC building
will enable the school to accept up to
350 students for the 2001-2003
school terms. In addition to adding
classroom space, the Bull Street facil
ity will give the school a gym and a
fenced-in playground.
Plans are to add additional class
rooms by dividing the larger rooms,
where the cadets were taught.
About $700,000 of the $1.3 million
has already been pledged for the pro
ject, Boland said. The Diocese of
Savannah will approach the
Savannah business community for
financial support.
“The restoration of the building in
historic Thomas Square neighbor
hood will be an asset to the entire
community,” Boland said. “An even
greater asset is the contribution of the
education of future leaders in the
community. For some time, sociolo
gists have known that children who
have been given sound values, morals
and a proper education in their for
mative years have the best opportuni
ty to succeed as solid citizens of
character and pass those values on to
their offspring.”
The Notre Dame revitalization pro
ject is the second in the area. The
on the head of cadets when they mis
behaved,” Jurgensen said.
Jurgensen also has fond memories
of playing basketball in “the cracker
box,” as BC’s gym was often called.
“It was similar to Commercial High’s
gym on stage and Savannah High’s
‘pit.’ They were all unique ... smaller,
shorter courts. When we went to
Atlanta to play, it was like running
from here to Waycross when the ball
changed hands.”
Father John Fitzpatrick, 66, now
pastor at Saint Michael’s on Tybee
Island, is another Benedictine gradu
ate who is happy to see the old facili
ty being renovated.
The faculty and the priests who
staffed the school still stand out in
Fitzpatrick’s mind 48 years after he
graduated in the class of 1952.
“They were dedicated men. I
believe it was because of their influ
ence that I, myself, am a priest
today,” Fitzpatrick said.
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too stunned to realize what was hap
pening.”
Father Fitzpatrick, also pleased to
see that the old BC building will be
renovated, is “very proud” that he
went there. “I feel I received a good
education that prepared me for get
ting my undergraduate and graduate
degrees,” he said.
Bishop J. Kevin Boland recently
conducted a news conference at the
old BC building to announce plans
for the $1.3 renovation program to
provide a new home for Notre Dame
Academy.
“The Catholic Church, and in par
ticular the Diocese of Savannah, has
a long tradition of providing educa
tional opportunities to children living
in central city areas,” Bishop Boland
said at the news conference. “Notre
Dame Academy has carried on this
tradition in recent years. The present
campus of the school is landlocked.
In order to accommodate enrollment
and keep classes small, it will be nec
essary to move the school to a more
spacious area.”
Most of Notre Dame’s students are
not Catholic. It’s a mix of the interci
ty community and very diversified.
Notre Dame is located on Lafayette
Square adjacent to the Cathedral of
main library building a couple of
blocks away recently underwent a
$12.8 million renovation.
BC officially opened on September
29, 1902 on the south side of 32nd
Street between Lincoln and Haber
sham streets. The first class had 21
cadets. Three years later, on June 16,
1905, the BC building at 34th and
Bull streets was dedicated.
Since 1905 the building has served
Catholic education. The school
remained at the Bull Street site until
the 1960s when it moved to its pre
sent location on Seawright Drive.
When BC departed the Bull Street
site, Sacred Heart Elementary School
moved in. It remained there until
1990, when it merged with Cathedral
Day School to form Notre Dame
Academy. The upper grades of Notre
Dame used the building as their cam
pus, but in recent years the building
has been vacant except for the gym’s
use for basketball practice.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church and
the Sacred Heart rectory will remain
next to the old BC building.
Reprinted by permission from the
Savannah Morning News.