Holy Names Academy

History

The school was officially founded on June 15, 1880, by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. Holy Names Academy was founded before Washington officially became a state in 1889. https://apps.leg.wa.gov/oralhistory/timeline_event.aspx?e=8#:~:text=Washington%20became%20the%20forty%2Dsecond,and%20Montana%20to%20seek%20statehood. Its first pupils were 21 day students, one boarding student, and one music student. Initially it was located in two rented houses at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Seneca Street in downtown Seattle. In 1885 the academy moved to its first purpose-built home, a multi-story structure in the Second Empire style crowned with a tall steeple. It was located on 7th Avenue near Jackson Street in what is now in the Chinatown/International District. An advertisement in Polk's Seattle City Directory from 1895 stated: "Thorough instruction is given in all the English branches, art, music, elocution and modern languages. Plain sewing and every variety of fancy needlework taught without extra charge, stenography and typewriting are among the elective studies."

By 1904 planned regrading works on Jackson Street meant another move for the school to what would be their present home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Construction began in 1906 and was completed in 1908. The building on 7th Avenue was demolished that same year. The architect of the new domed building, designed in the Baroque Revival style, was Albert Breitung. Its design has been preserved over the years with few exterior changes.

The adjacent Jeanne Marie McAteer Lee Gymnasium was built in 1990 on what was previously tennis courts. In 2017, the school opened the Mary Herche Pavilion, a 3-story structure that connects the original building and the gym, and features a student commons area, a fitness center for all students and faculty, an expanded cafeteria with outdoor seating, and other improvements.

By 2018, the Academy recognized challenges to the school’s long-term sustainability, notably the acute lack of parking in a rapidly changing Capitol Hill neighborhood and insufficient facilities for a thriving athletics program. In response, the school undertook one of the largest capital initiatives in its history—the Foundation for the Future campaign—to support the construction of an underground parking garage and a new athletic complex atop it. Starting in 2019, the previous gym was removed, the site was excavated for a five-level, 243-vehicle garage, and a new Jeanne Marie McAteer Lee Athletic Complex rose at the Roy Street end of the HNA campus. The project was completed in fall 2020.

Holy Names Academy had originally incorporated a boarding school and grade school. A normal school was added in 1908. The normal school closed in 1930, the grade school in 1963, and the boarding school in 1967.

Architecture

File:Holy Names Academy (Seattle), 1905.jpg|The school's first permanent building photographed in 1905 File:Holy Names Academy and Normal School, 21st Ave E and E Aloha St, Seattle (CURTIS 293).jpeg|The school's present building shortly after its completion in 1908 File:Seattle - Holy Names 05 - cropped.jpg|Statue of Mary with the child Jesus on the building's exterior

Athletics

Holy Names Academy has teams for Basketball, Bowling, Cheer, Crew, Cross Country, Flag Football, Golf, Gymnastics, Lacrosse, Slowpitch Softball, Soccer, Softball, Swim/Dive, Tennis, Track/Field, Ultimate Frisbee, and Volleyball. It has won a total of 18 team state titles in the following sports: https://www.holynames-sea.org/athletics/

• Basketball
• Cross Country
• Golf
• Gymnastics
• Soccer
• Swim/Dive
• Tennis
• Track

Notable alumnae

• Paula Mary Turnbull (c. 1939), welding nun
• Jan Haag (1951), founder of the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women, textile artist, and poet
• Lynn Kessler (1958), Washington State legislator and House Majority Leader
• Kathleen Ross SNJM (1959), founding President, Heritage University
• Mary C. Boys SNJM (1965), theologian, scholar, Dean of Academic Affairs at Union Theological Seminary (New York City)
• Catherine LaCugna (1970), feminist Catholic theologian
• Katherine Zappone (1972), Irish legislator and government minister
• Kathleen McGinn (1976), economist and professor at Harvard Business School
• Meagan Flynn (1985), Supreme Court Justice, State of Oregon
• Venetria Patton (1986), Head of School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Professor of English and African-American Studies, Purdue University
• Angela Rye (1998), political commentator and activist
• Julia Reed (2005), Washington State Representative
• Lindsay Meyer (2007), Olympic rowing athlete

References

References

1. Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering (19 August 2014). [https://news.cs.washington.edu/2014/08/19/uw-cse-hearts-holy-names-academy/ "UW CSE hearts Holy Names Academy"]. [[University of Washington]]. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
2. "U.S. high school rankings by state — Most challenging schools". Washington Post.
3. Douthit, Mary Osborn (ed.) (1905). [https://archive.org/stream/souvenirofwester00dou#page/108 ''The Souvenir of Western Women''], p. 108. Anderson & Duniway
4. Michelson, Alan (2015). [http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/8103/ "Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle, Holy Names Academy #1]. Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD). Retrieved 19 September 2018.
5. Michelson, Alan (2015). [http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/8114/ "Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle, Holy Names Academy #2"]. Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD). Retrieved 19 September 2018.
6. Historic Seattle Preservation Foundation (2013). [https://historicseattle.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/2013_Programs.pdf ''Historic Seattle''], p. 3. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
7. Staff (25 September 2017). [http://www.djc.com/news/co/pow.html?id=12104407 "Holy Names Mary Herche Pavilion"]. ''[[Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce]]''. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
8. Dorpat, Paul (14 January 2007). [https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/grande-dame-holy-names/ "Grande Dame, Holy Names"]. ''[[Seattle Times]]''. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
9. (July 29, 2018). "Paula Turnbull Obituary (1921–2018)". The Seattle Times.
10. link. (2018-09-19 . Retrieved 19 September 2018.)