Delco enjoys rich legacy of St. James
The path from the beginning of St. James Catholic High School to its Alumni Association’s homebase today at the Doghouse in Eddystone and bequeathing of the school’s legacy to Saint James Regional Catholic School in Ridley Park is intertwined with the changes the city of Chester and Delaware County over the last century.
The city’s position as an industrial hub during World War I had boosted its population from roughly 38,000 in 1910 to 58,000 in 1920. As housing filled the formerly sparse uptown, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia formed St. Robert’s Parish, holding Mass at the Good Will Firehouse at 15th Street and Providence Avenue in 1923.
An all-purpose structure was erected in 1924 on 21st Street between Potter and Upland streets in 1924, housing the church, a convent, and
a grade school and high school. The high school welcomed its first freshman class of eight girls and one boy on Jan. 6, 1925.
The Rev. James Timmins, longtime pastor of St. Michael’s Parish in the city’s downtown, saw the need for a larger high school and bequeathed the archdiocese $100,000 in 1929 to build a high school for boys.
With rampant overcrowding at St. Robert’s, Pastor James Mulhern sold the Potter Street building to the archdiocese to house a new high school, who used Timmin’s donation to purchase and renovate the building.
The new school opened on Sept. 2, 1940, with 257 students and bearing the name of Timmin’s patron saint. As the city’s population grew to its peak census population of about 66,000 in 1950, the building again faced overcrowding. In 1954, the school expanded from its location in the center the block.
“They reconfigured the school building to look like the letter ‘E,’” said John Mooney, Class of 1950, and a student at the original St. Robert’s grade school. Mooney returned as a teacher the year of the expansion, earning his reputation of “Mr. St. James” as an English teacher, assistant principal, athletic director, baseball coach, along with performing a host of other tasks for the school. “They put classrooms on 21st Street side, the auditorium on the Upland Street side, and gymnasium on the Potter Street side.”
At the time of the expansion, St. James and its sister school, Notre Dame High School in Moylan, were being relieved as the county’s only Catholic high schools with the construction of Archbishop Prendergast and Monsignor Bonner in Upper Darby.
In the late ‘50s, overcrowding at Notre Dame led to some girls attending class on the second and third floors of St. James. Mooney quipped the arrangement meant gave new meaning to the school’s motto of “Quae Sursum Quaerite,” or “seek the things that are above,” for students. “They would stand in the parking lot and look upstairs for the girls,” he said.
With the first wave of Baby Boomers entering high school, overcrowding again became issue, with 1,800 students filling the school’s 16 classrooms in 1965. The archdiocese responded with Cardinal O’Hara opening in Springfield and Archbishop Carroll in Radnor.
By the 1980s, the tide was beginning to turn for enrollment. Notre Dame closed its doors in 1981. “The archdiocese was very good at predicting how many students would enter your school,” said Mooney. “Their count was not off by much. We were good until the late ‘80s, then had a drastic drop.”
The 1992-93 academic year was filled with a contentious back-and-forth between the St. James community and the archdiocese, who had announced the school was targeted for closure.
“Our feeling is St. James and Notre Dame were sacrificed for O’Hara,” said
Alumni Association President Mike Ritz. “They built this huge school out in Springfield and it was not filled.”
Alumni’s successful efforts to raise $1 million for renovations and the school’s openness to brining in female students per the archdiocese did not change its decision to close the school. With the fundraising in place, some alumni entertained the idea of running St. James as an independent school.
“It was a grand idea, but I don’t think they realized the cost of operations,” said Mooney. “Even with corporate help, I don’t think it was going to last.”
“Even today, people still hold animosity,” said Ritz. “Guys pulled donations, stopped going to church. I tell them, ‘We’re still here.’ The legacy of St. James wasn’t found inside those four walls at 21st and Potter. It’s found in the hearts and minds of everybody that’s still involved with this organization (alumni association), still upholding the principles and values we took when we walked out of that school.”
The alumni association grew with the closure of the school, meeting at members’ homes, St. Joseph’s Parish in Aston and other locations. In 1996, the group opened the original Doghouse as a meeting space, renting a portion of alumnus John Dimeglio’s insurance office on the Conchester Highway.
“We thought that’s it, we’ve got an office on a major highway – we’re big time,” said Ritz. The office soon proved too small, and the group began to collect membership dues to fund an expansion.
Vice President Jim Connor headed a building committee and found that the former Eddystone Boys’ Club at Ninth and Simpson streets was available. With lawyers for both parties St. James grads, a deal was quickly reached and members funded the major renovations needed for the building, including $50,000 for a new roof. “I sent out a letter for a four-year pledge,” said Ritz. “We had $10,000 pledges for four years and $5 for four years.”
The Doghouse opened its doors in 2003. Ten years letter, another letter went out.
“We needed $93,000 to pay off the mortgage and we raised $111,000. We paid it off in December 2013 and the rest of the money went into the maintenance fund for the building,” said Ritz. Hall rentals, sometimes booked up to three years in advance, currently fund the costs of maintaining the building, meaning all donations to the association can fund its scholarship and charity efforts.
The Doghouse features a banquet hall, a bar surrounded by St. James athletic trophies and memorabilia, an upstairs meeting room and chapel, a rear outside bar and a grotto dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“It’s not a memory, it’s a physical building,” said Ray Didinger, Class of ’64, longtime Philadelphia sportswriter and NBC Sports Philadelphia commentator. “It’s a tribute to the alumni officers that they’re not just keeping the school’s spirit alive in newsletters and events – you can experience it in a real and tangible way.”
Beginning in July 2012, the St. James legacy came to include the former St. MadelineSt. Rose parish school in Ridley Park. When the archdiocese decided to make the site one of its 22 consolidated regional schools, then-St. Madeline’s Pastor Louis Bellopede gave Ritz a call.
“He said ‘I’m a West Catholic guy, but I’ve always been in awe of what you guys have been doing,’” said Ritz. Feeling the need to give the students a new identity, Bellopede had thought of St. James. “He said ‘I want the colors, the mascot, the alma mater, the fight song, the seal – everything.’”
An emergency meeting was called and the alumni association board voted an unianimous “aye,” with the announcement going out that evening at Saturday Vigil Masses. “My mother-in-law was at one of the churches for the announcement,” said Ritz. “She told me everyone stood up and applauded.”