The Grosse Pointe Academy is an independent day school located at 171 Lake Shore Drive in

Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan Grosse Pointe Farms is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 9,479 at the 2010 census. As part of the Grosse Pointe collection of cities, it is a northeastern city of Metro Detroit and shares a small wester ...

. Originally known as the Academy of the Sacred Heart, the campus buildings were designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1977 and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1987. The school serves preschool through middle school (lower secondary school).

History

The site on which the Grosse Pointe Academy now sits was originally a French

ribbon farm Ribbon farms (also known as strip farms, long-lot farms, or just long lots) are long, narrow land divisions for farming, usually lined up along a waterway. In some instances, they line a road. Background Ribbon or strip farms were prevalent in ...

running from Lake St. Clair to Ridge Road. In 1867, the

Society of the Sacred Heart , image = RSCJnuevo.jpg, , image_size = 150px , caption = , abbreviation = Post-nominal letters: RSCJ , formation = , founder = Saint Sr. Madeleine Sophie Barat, R.S.C.J. ...

, an order of cloistered nuns, obtained the property, and the next year a small public school was built on the property. In 1885, the nuns planned the construction of a boarding school for young ladies, teaching grades K–12, on the property. The school was built in 1887 along the property line separating the academy from Saint Paul's, so that the nuns could enter the building from within the property and the students could enter from the parking lot of St. Paul's. The remainder of the property continued to be a self-sustaining farm. In 1899, the chapel was added. In the late 1920s, recognizing the need for more space, the sisters sold off the portion of the farm beyond Grosse Pointe Boulevard and used the proceeds to build a new education building and renovate the chapel. Farming continued on the property until the 1940s. In 1969, the Sisters deeded the property to a lay Board of Trustees, who continued the educational mission of the school as the Grosse Pointe Academy, a co-educational day school.

Description

The Grosse Pointe Academy is situated on a long strip of land between Grosse Pointe Boulevard and Lake Shore Drive on Lake Saint Clair, and directly adjacent to Saint Paul Catholic Church (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan). Seven buildings are situated on the site, of which five are contributing structures to the historic district: an 1855 farmhouse, four large educational buildings dating from 1885 to 1930. The last two structures, a 1939 headmaster's house and a maintenance shed, are non-contributing.

References

External links

Grosse Pointe Academy — homepage
{{authority control Private K–8 schools in Michigan Schools in Wayne County, Michigan School buildings completed in 1887 Michigan State Historic Sites in Wayne County, Michigan Historic district contributing properties in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Wayne County, Michigan School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Italianate architecture in Michigan Gothic Revival architecture in Michigan Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Defunct Catholic secondary schools in Michigan