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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. TV Mass Schedule Augusta Sundays 10:00 a.m. WAGT-7V Macon Sundays 5:30 p.m. WGNM-TV Savannah Saturdays 6:00 p.m. Comcast Cable 7 Savannah Sundays 6:00 a.m. WTOC-TV 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.