Today, Loyola celebrates its 119th birthday.
It was on Thursday, Nov. 3, 1902, when St. John’s College opened with four priests and 32 students. It was a three-story building at 1564 Texas Avenue in what was then Southwest Shreveport. Today, you can see a historical marker of the location very near the intersection of I-20 and I-49.
What had been little more than an idea a few years earlier was now a reality. Father John O’Connor founded the school and the church and there were many obstacles in those early years.The school and church were named in honor of St. John Berchmans, a saint who appeared in the 1850s to a dying nun at Sacred Heart Convent at Grand Coteau, and restored her to health.
The building was primarily intended to house the faculty (the priests occupied the upper two stories) and the bottom floor was used for the school.
Tuition was $6 per month.
The school calendar in the early 1900s ran from early September to the middle of June and the only holidays were for All Saints Day, Christmas and Easter. The school doors opened at 8 a.m. At 8:45, students went to the church for prayer and classes began at 9 a.m. Dismissal was at 3 p.m.
The first period dealt with Christian Doctrine, Memory, History or Latin; the second period was for Mathematics. After lunch, there was a 30-minute period for Elocution and Language, followed by 30 minutes for History. The final 60-minute period was for English, Science and Geography. Younger students also had a period for penmanship.
Turnover was significant. About 30 to 40 percent of the students did not return from one year to the next.
On Sept. 12, 1938, the school held its first classes in the new – and permanent – building on Jordan Street, where it stands today.
Happy 119th Birthday, Loyola College Prep! Here's to many more years of creating men and women of conscience, character, and compassion, continuing the Jesuit Catholic tradition of discipline, academic excellence, student involvement, and faith in action for “The Greater Glory of God”!