St. Frances Cabrini: History

January 18, 1952 - The Archbishop of Seattle, responding to local requests, formed a new Catholic parish in rapidly expanding post-war Lakewood. He dedicated that parish in memory of the first American saint, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini.

January 27, 1952 - First mass for the new faith community was celebrated in the gym of Visitation Villa, a school for girls, that stood on the current site of the Lakewood Towne Center. The celebrant tasked with building both community and buildings was Reverend Andrew J. Squier.

Throughout 1953 - The sounds of hammers and saws and concrete trucks marked dreams coming true. Families watched with hope and joy as buildings took shape on an unpaved, unmarked dirt road near the center of the sprawling suburb.

September 10, 1953 -- Sisters of the Holy Names arrived at Visitation Villa. They stayed with Visitation Villa sisters until the Cabrini convent was completed.

September 16, 1953 -- The sisters prepared their classrooms; the new textbooks were laid out and shellacked on the gym floor.

September 21, 1953 - Opening day for the new St. Frances Cabrini School. It was a rewarding milestone day for those charter members of our founding faith community who were determined to have a Catholic parish and school. Meeting notes from organizing committees and the founding pastor Fr. Andrew Squier show their dedication to having a school to provide a faith-centered education in an atmosphere of love and respect. That dedication still remains vibrantly alive today in the spirit of Cabrini School.

Statistics from first year of school: Six Sisters, 147 Boys and 137 girls.

December 13, 1953 - First mass was celebrated in the original Cabrini Church. Another milestone reached. Archbishop Thomas Connolly dedicated a space that was to remain the faith community's place of worship for the next 46 years.

May 31, 1956 -- First 8th grade graduation (When the school opened there were only grades 1 through 6).

1959-1961 -- Eight more classrooms were added - two for each grade

1968-69 -- Peak enrollment: 720 Students, 12 Sisters; Third largest school in the Archdiocese of Seattle.

1970’s -- Under the direction of Mrs. Dotty McDaniel, our Cabrini students excelled in speech tournaments held at Bellarmine.

1972 -- CYO sports program began in Pierce County. SFC earns many trophies.

1977 -- A visionary group, including Mrs. Hanel, established an Endowment for SFC

1986 -- Closure of St Frances Cabrini Convent; Kindergarten opened.

1990’s -- Renovation of school library; new buildings added for Pre-Kindergarten, Extended Care, PreK, science and computer lab.

December 5, 1999 -- Dedication of a new church for St. Frances Cabrini Parish

2001-- Major renovation and seismic upgrade of the main building

2002 -- St. Frances Cabrini Parish begins celebration of 50th Anniversary of its founding

2003 -- St. Frances Cabrini School celebrates 50th year

This phrase introduced the Holy Names Sisters to the newly built St Frances Cabrini School. September 10, 1953 was the day five pioneering nuns sent to staff our school arrived in Lakewood.

As the convent was not yet completed, the neighboring Visitation Villa Sisters offered them lodging until their convent was ready for occupancy. Since 1924 Visitation Villa was a Catholic girls boarding and day school that was located on the land currently occupied by the Lakewood Town Center. In 1954 the Visitation Sisters moved from Lakewood to a more cloistered life at their place in Dash Point.

Between the two properties there was a cow pasture and, as was written in the 25th Cabrini anniversary book, “The Visitation Sisters accompanied our Holy Names sisters through the cow pasture and initiated them in the use of a “stile”, a double ladder built to cross the barbed wire fence in safety and style.” This wonderful story exemplifies our humble beginnings.

As happened with religious across the nation, our Holy Names sisters left St Frances Cabrini School in June of 1986. A daily Journal, kept by the sisters all the years they staffed Cabrini school ended with this journal entry: “Today marks the end of occupancy of St Frances Cabrini Convent by the Sisters of the Holy Names after thirty-three years. The convent building will be used for parish offices and meetings as of July 7. Sister Nancy Anderson, Sister Yvonne de Turenne, Sister Therese Martin, Sister Delores Shaw, and Sister Ellen Joan Duffy helped with the cleaning and sorting necessary for vacating the convent after so many years.” (Sister Ellen Joan was one of the original five who taught at our school).

At the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of our school, we received this memory from Sr. Robert Mary King, our first principal. “Cabrini Pioneer Days- were exciting, demanding and challenging. Exciting because each step of the way was new and almost uncharted. All of us–pastor, people, sisters-worked together to realize the dream that was St Frances Cabrini Parish. It was challenging because all of us wanted our parish beginnings to be deeply rooted in faith, educationally creative and future oriented.”

This year’s accreditation process assures these ideals will remain and be strengthened. Cabrini school will continue to be “deeply rooted in faith, educationally creative and future oriented.” The Holy Names Sisters began this Legacy of Love and Learning. It is up to us to continue it.

These were the words given to Fr. Andrew J. Squier by Archbishop Thomas A. Connolly in 1952 as Fr. Squier was commissioned to start St. Frances Cabrini parish and school. Much work was accomplished between those words and the beginning of classes on September 21, 1953.

The school was staffed by five Holy Names Sisters and two lay teachers. The enrollment was expected to be 144. Instead, 253 registered into six grades. The average class size was 40 to 50 students, definitely an unheard of number according to today's standards. Seventh grade was added in the fall of 1954 and eighth grade in the fall of 1955. The first eighth grade graduation occurred May 31, 1956.

Throughout the years we have seen many changes in the school facility. From 1959 to 1961 eight more classrooms were erected to meet the needs of increased enrollment. By November 1968 Cabrini school was the third largest in the Seattle Archdiocese. At one point the enrollment was 720 students.

In the 70's things changed again. Catholic schools all over the nation experienced decreased enrollment and financial difficulties. Religious communities changed their focus to other ministries. Therefore, there were fewer sisters to teach in the schools. With a transition to primarily lay faculties, costs increased dramatically, posing economic challenges to parents and parish communities.

1990s to Now. Cabrini School and St. Frances Cabrini Parish struggled through this transition during the 1980s. However, with the 1990s came new energy, vision and growth.

New Programs. A kindergarten program was added in 1990, followed by a pre-kindergarten in 1994. A child care program was added the same year providing before-school and after-school services to aid working parents.
A New Tuition Concept was introduced in 1993 entitled Fair Share. It sought to reallocate financial assistance to those families that needed it, and asked families that could afford the full cost of education to do so.
New Buildings were added to the campus to house these programs. In 1996 another building was added which currently houses labs for our computer and science programs. Our middle-school wing was incrementally upgraded between 1992 and 1995. During the summer of 2001 our main building was totally renovated, upgrading the learning environment and safety it provides students and staff to current standards.
Class Sizes are now limited to age-appropriate numbers, and are generally smaller than found in comparable grades in public schools.
Dedicated Faculty and Staff. All Cabrini School's teachers are state certified. All teachers and staff undergo background checks as a step in assuring safety for our students. Teacher salaries are now nearly at parity with their counterparts in public schools.
Sound Financial Base. Our school's financial house is in order, thus enabling us to devote full attention to our mission: providing a faith-filled education to its students.

Throughout the past 50 years, thousands of students have come and gone, friendships have been made and remembered, lives have been lived, shared and changed. Awards and trophies have been earned. Much learning has occurred. As the spirit of Cabrini continues, our teachers will continue to provide quality Catholic education and guide children to become men and women of integrity and faith.