Lourdes Central Catholic High School (Nebraska)


Lourdes Central Catholic High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Nebraska City, Nebraska. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lincoln and is the junior-senior high school of Our Lady of Lourdes Central Catholic Schools, the pre-kindergarten through 12th Grade consolidated school of nine Catholic parishes in Nebraska City, Paul, Julian, Syracuse, Peru, Auburn, Avoca, and Plattsmouth.

History

Saint Benedict's Parish in Nebraska City founded Saint Benedict's Parochial School in 1861, with the assistance of the Benedictine Sisters of Pennsylvania. In 1865 Annunciation Academy, a girls' school, was founded and in 1880 Saint Mary's School. Falling enrollment led to the closure of Saint Mary's in 1891, with the building being sold to the Nebraska City Public Library Committee, and in 1908 Annunciation Academy closed because of insufficient funds to repair the building. The following year Saint Bernard's Academy was opened in the former home of a local judge. It was coeducational, with boarding facilities for girls, and was operated by the Bernadine Madames of Ollignies, Belgium, until 1920, when the Ursuline Sisters of Kentucky replaced them after passage of a state law disqualifying non-citizens from teaching in schools. In 1927, the Ursulines took over Saint Benedict's also, and that school moved into a new building in 1951.
Lourdes Central Catholic School was later built to house the high school students from Saint Mary's, Saint Benedict's, and the parishes in Julian, Paul, and Dunbar, and a new Saint Mary's School, an elementary school, was subsequently attached to it. The two Nebraska City parishes consolidated their elementary schools in 1963, dividing the grades between the two buildings, and the high school became a junior-senior high school in 1966.