Boston College High School Revenue and Competitors

In 1863, the Massachusetts House and Senate passed an Act to incorporate a new school rooted in the sixteenth century teachings of St. Ignatius and fashioned on the European model-a seven-year program combining college and secondary school. Twenty two pioneering students ranging in age from 11 to 16 years of age enrolled that first year in a curriculum of rudiments (Latin and Greek) and humanities (philosophy and theology) in what was called "Boston College." Made possible by the determination and vision of Rev. John McElroy, SJ, the school was founded to educate a burgeoning population of Irish immigrants during a period of bitter racial and religious hatred in the City of Boston. Rev. John Bapst, SJ was selected as the first president of the school and its first home was on Harrison Avenue and James Street in Boston's South End. For the first fifty years, the college and the preparatory school occupied the same quarters, twice enlarged, and their histories became inseparable. By 1913 there were more than one thousand students enrolled in what was called, by this time, the "High School" and some three hundred enrolled in the "College." That year the college relocated to its present site in Chestnut Hill. Boston College High School remained in the South End at the original site. For the next fourteen years the two schools continued to share the same administration, but by 1927 the division into two legally separated institutions was effected. In 1948, Rev. Robert A. Hewitt, SJ purchased 70 acres on Columbia Point for $240,000. This site would be the new home of BC High and would realize Father Hewitt's vision of "a modern high school with a full range of scholastic facilities, including science laboratories, and a library; the necessary ecclesiastical facilities, including a Jesuit faculty residence and a church; a wide range of athletic facilities, including a gymnasium, field house, and outdoor areas for a variety of sports, both interscholastic and intramural, and areas for general recreation, faculty walks, parking and campus landscaping." In 1950, McElroy Hall opened its doors to 600 juniors and seniors. The entire student body moved to the new campus by 1954 but members of the Jesuit Community remained at the James Street Residence. In 1957, Loyola Hall, the Jesuit residence, was completed and in 1965 the Walsh Hall Science Center was dedicated. Ten years later, the Student Training, Athletic and Recreation Complex (S.T.A.R.) was dedicated and, following the completion of a successful $3,000,000 capital campaign, the school dedicated the 37,000 square foot multi-use McNeice Pavilion in 1988. In 1997, the Corcoran Library was opened, a fully automated and networked reading, study and research center occupying the first floor of Cushing Hall. In 2005, President William J. Kemeza - the school's first lay president - opened the school's newest building, the largest in the school's history, a 63,000 sq/ft addition, including a student commons, science center and cafeteria, calling it "a physical demonstration of our renaissance, a new birth, a new affirmation of our commitment to academic excellence." It was named McQuillan Hall at the end of the school's highly successful $51 million Renaissance campaign in 2008. On September 7, 2007, BC High's Arrupe Division for seventh and eighth graders opened its doors in the fully renovated Walsh Hall. Named after Rev. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, the former superior general of the Society of Jesus, the Arrupe Division extends the rigorous Jesuit educational experience offered at BC High to a younger generation of students.