The Saga of St. Mary School

by mokenamarian, posted in Blog

St. Mary School is celebrating its 75th anniversary. When it opened its doors three-quarters of a century ago, Harry Truman was in the White House, the New York Yankees were World Series Champions (some things are timeless), and the Diocese of Joliet was one year old.

Let’s step back in time and explore how St. Mary School has grown throughout the decades.

Location, Location, Location

The first St. Mary School was located in a wooden frame building that stood opposite the old church on Wolf Road (on the current parking lot site). This same building had served as the parish hall since its construction in 1926. It consisted of three classrooms and a basement. Due to the lack of space, different grade levels had to share rooms.

The first St. Mary School was located near the old church and cemetery on Wolf Road where the parking lot is today. The framed building had three classrooms and a basement, which doubled as a parish hall. It served as the school from 1949 to 1955, when the current school opened.
St. Mary grades three and four shared a classroom in the original school building due to lack of space. Photo courtesy of Mary Frances Consola.

To meet growing population needs, the parish broke ground for a new school and church building on the current site on 195th Street and 115th Avenue. It opened in November 1955 and expanded 10 years later in 1964, when there were roughly 400 students.

The current St. Mary School building and the second St. Mary Church (today the Koop Library and Media Center) were dedicated on May 6th, 1956. Bishop Martin McNamara, the first Bishop of the Joliet Diocese, personally oversaw the dedication.

In these early years, the parish owned its own school bus, and the pastor, Fr. Cecil Koop, drove it daily. Mary Frances Consola, who was a student during the 1950s, recalls Fr. Koop picking her up from her home in Orland Park, as well as driving students on field trips, including to Springfield, IL.

Fr. Cecil Koop (far right), pastor of St. Mary in the 1950s and 1960s, poses next to the parish school bus, which he personally drove every day to pick up and drop off students.

In 1962, the men of the parish built a garage to house the school bus and serve as a gymnasium and events center. Bishop Romeo Blanchette nicknamed this garage the “Cow Palace,” comparing it to the Cow Palace Convention Center in California.

Nicknamed the “Cow Palace,” this building began life as a bus garage for the school before becoming a parish hall and events center that hosted weddings, graduations, athletics, movie nights, and much more in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1987, it was demolished to make room for the current church.
St. Mary students walk back from recess in 1985/1986. In the background, the “Cow Palace” hall stands where the current church is today. Photo courtesy of Jeannine Skarbek-kubas.

St. Mary Parish and School continued to thrive. To accommodate the explosive growth, the parish tore down the “Cow Palace” to make room for the current church building in 1987. At this time, the parish also converted the old church into the school gymnasium.

From church to gym. After the current church was completed in 1987, the second St. Mary Church was converted into the school gym. Today it is the Koop Library and Media Center.
The entrance to St. Mary School (circa 1990s). After the construction and expansion of the second school in the 1950s and 1960s, no major expansions were made until 2003.
View of St. Mary School from the east before the expansion in 2003. Students often had recess in the open grass field where additional classrooms and Mary’s Circle now stand.

By the late 1990s, it was once again time for a major school expansion. After a successful capital campaign in 2003, the parish undertook an eight-million-dollar project that added a new gymnasium, cafeteria, music room, art room, and science lab to the school, in addition to six new classrooms. In 2008, the old gym was converted into the Koop Library and Media Center.

Construction takes place on the St. Mary School expansion in 2003.

Since then, the school has continued to make incremental improvements at its current location, including the addition of a preschool classroom, an updated library, and a STEAM Lab.

Life at St. Mary School

Buildings are important, but they are nothing without the generations of students and teachers who have walked through them.

The Teachers

For decades, St. Mary was primarily staffed by the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Mary Frances Consola, who graduated in 1960, recalls that the nuns taught arithmetic, grammar, spelling, history, and, in those days, the Baltimore Catechism. During that era, students attended Mass daily and said prayers multiple times each day.

One of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart teaches St. Mary schoolchildren in the early 1970s.

She also recalls some creative discipline methods, in particular one used by Sr. Helen Ann. Each time Sister told the class to be quiet, she would write a number on the board. At the end of the day, the number on the board was how many times the students would have to write out their multiplication tables. Consola admits that, after writing them out so much, her class got good enough at their multiplication tables to beat the older kids in a multiplication competition!

Although teaching and disciplinary methods changed throughout the years, the sisters always took their vocations seriously. For example, Sr. Kathleen Hook used her musical passion to train student choirs and play the church organ for school Masses. Sr. Mary Jane Sola taught reading to first graders for decades. Sr. Mary Benedict was a beloved art teacher who had a silk screen press.

St. Mary School Christmas Choir, conducted by Sr. Kathleen Hook, circa 1980s. Photo courtesy of Jeannine Skarbek-kubas.

Eighth-grader Jeannine Skarbek-kubas with Sr. Mary Therese at the school science fair in 1986. Photo courtesy Jeannine Skarbek-kubas.

In total, 58 Franciscan sisters served at St. Mary parish between 1949 and 1999, when the last three left their positions. At that point, lay teachers, who had taught alongside the nuns for decades, continued the legacy of excellence.

Among them was Mrs. Gloria Janousek, who proved instrumental in founding the school’s computer program in 1994. “St. Mary School was definitely one of the pioneers in the area and the diocese in technology,” explains Janousek. “We were one of the first schools with a computer lab.”

St. Mary was one of the first local schools to offer a computer lab in 1994, thanks largely to Mrs. Gloria Janousek.

The computer program instilled the foundational technical skills that many students now apply daily in the workplace as adults. Mrs. Janousek continued to grow the technology program until her retirement in 2022, spearheading the use of tablets in the classroom and the creation of a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) program.

Longtime physical education teacher, Mrs. Anne Lindley, also left a permanent mark on the school, instilling a foundation of fitness in countless students. Among her contributions were the Jump Rope for Heart Program, which raised money for the American Heart Association, the launch of a cup stacking tournament, and yearly physical fitness testing.

Besides these, Lindley introduced generations of students to a variety of athletics, from roller skating to volleyball, to pickleball (before it became popular).

Mrs. Anne Lindley rollerskates with students at the old St. Mary gymnasium in the late 1990s. Photo courtesy of Anne Lindley.

Students Then & Now

No matter which decade or in which building, St. Mary alumni have fond memories from their time as students.

…Eating hot lunch pizzas, picking up milk cartons for the class, raising the flag in the morning, walking to school Mass, waiting for the bus, learning to type with orange keyboard “skins,” competing against other schools in the end-of-year-olympics, writing and exchanging Valentines during the classroom Valentine’s day party, playing hockey in the “Cow Palace,” joining the basketball team, learning to read from the “On a Blue Hill” textbook, memorizing multiplication tables, walking to recess at Willowview Park, playing “crab soccer” in gym class, dancing at graduation banquets…

All are different memories, yet many are shared by entire classes of students. Some are shared by nearly every student who ever attended the school.

St. Mary School graduation banquet dance held inside the “Cow Palace,” circa 1980s. Photo courtesy of Jeannine Skarbek-kubas.
Class picture of St. Mary grades 3 and 4 in late 1955. Photo courtesy of Mary Frances Consola.
“Dress-up” day for students at St. Mary, circa 1985/86. Photo courtesy of Jeannine Skarbek-kubas.
Students having fun in gym class in the late 1990s. Photo courtesy of Anne Lindley.

Although years and decades divide them, there is something timeless that unites all St. Mary School students and alumni. They were all children in the dawn of their lives. St. Mary provided them with some of their earliest and most formative memories, lessons, and experiences that have remained with them throughout the years.

To all the teachers, staffmembers, volunteers, clergy, and parents who have made this possible for the past 75 years, thank you.

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