Notre Dame Convent in Holyoke
The first school on the campus was the Notre Dame School. The teachers were the Notre Dame nuns and a convent was built for them that year of 1869 when the school opened. The convent remains the oldest structure on the Holyoke campus of St Jerome’s.
The school was a wooden home that was moved from Elm Street to Hampden Street. This was the second girls’ school in the old Springfield Diocese (Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire). The first girls’ school was at Holy Name of Jesus in Chicopee. A nun’s chapel was added in 1872 to the back of the convent. This wooden structure was replaced in 1883 with the brick school Immaculate Conception of the Notre Dame of Lourdes. The wooden school was moved to Worcester Place and lasted until 1980.
