St. Paul's School (Louisiana)

In 1904, a group of residents of the Covington area banded together to fund the building of a new public school. After acquiring a tract of land and building a one-story, 2 bedroom building, the school, called Dixon Academy, opened in 1907. The school failed to attract enough students to remain viable.

In 1911, the school property was sold to the Benedictines of nearby Saint Joseph Abbey. The school was renamed St. Paul's, and reopened in September, 1911, with only 48 students. By the end of the first session, enrollment numbered 70 boarders and 30 day students.

Meanwhile, nineteen French Christian Brothers had emigrated to Louisiana from France and Mexico, having been exiled for political reasons and purchased the school from the Benedictines.[2]

Although St. Paul's originally taught students only at high school level, it grew to encompass middle and elementary levels; this continued into the 1950s. However, by the 1960s there were enough other schools in the area to allow St. Paul's to begin to eliminate the younger grades, with the intention of focusing on a college preparatory curriculum. By the late 1970s, the school had a six-year program, 7th-12th grades. The 1981-82 year was the final session with a 7th grade class, and the school continues a five-year program to this day.

The original Dixon Academy building (known as Dixon Hall on campus) had long been supplanted by other buildings, but remained standing and used for storage. In November 1981, during Thanksgiving break, the building burned to the ground; a forensic investigation determined old electrical wiring to be the cause. Using bricks from the original structure, a patio/garden area was created on the site, and dubbed "Founders' Circle".

The last of the original 19 brothers, Bro. Charles Crouzet, remained living on campus, although retired from teaching, until his death in 1985. A statue of Jesus was erected in Founders' Circle and dedicated to Bro. Charles in honor of his faithful devotion to the school and God.

As a boarding school, St. Paul's was able to accommodate students from a wide geographic area; over the years, students from Central and South America, France, Greece, Russia, Korea, and Japan attended. However, due to a general decline in boarders, the increasing expense of housing residents, and the prospect of overhauling a dormitory which was in disrepair, St. Paul's converted to an all day-student program beginning with the 2003-2004 school year.

In 2011, St. Paul's celebrated its centennial birthday.

The Lasalle Hall dormitory was originally built as a two-wing building in 1964, with a third central wing added in 1970. In 2010-2011, the center wing (which had deteriorated beyond repair) was removed, and the remaining space underwent a full renovation and conversion into classroom space as the new Math and Science building. In the central courtyard, a set of pillars was added with plaques for each of the Lasallian Core Principles. The first day of classes in the renovated space was January 9, 2012.

During the 2014-2015 school year, St. Paul's started construction on a new gym for the Gene Bennet Sports Complex. The new gym was completed and dedicated in September 2015. The new gym is the primary home for basketball and physical education programs, while wrestling and powerlifting is housed in a renovated Gene Bennett Sports Complex.

During summer 2018 to fall 2018, Benilde Hall was renovated. St Paul's removed the second floor library and the ground floor was made into a student commons area.

Below is a list of the sports programs the school offers.

• Baseball - State Champs in 2019
• Basketball
• Bowling
• Cross Country - The team won 6 state championships: 4 consecutively in 98',99',00',01, and two more in 2013[7] and 2016.[8] In 2011 the team placed 3rd in the LHSAA State Championships and in 2012 were the state runners-up. Eric Coston '17 set the Louisiana high school 3 mile record time at 14:25.7[9]
• Football - District Champs 1990, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016
• Golf
• In-Line Hockey
• Lacrosse - State Champion 2017.
• Powerlifting - The team won the 2012 LHSAA State Championship.
• Soccer The team beat Jesuit-New Orleans in the 2011 State Championship.[10] The team ended as runner up to Jesuit in the 2012 State Championship. In 2014, the team beat out Grace King 3-0 to win the championship. During the 2015 season, the soccer team was rated #1 in Louisiana and #1 in the country. They again won the State Championship in 2015 to make it a 3-peat. Then, in 2016, the soccer team defeated Catholic High in Baton Rouge, LA to make it a 4-peat.
• Swimming
• Tennis - 1991 state title (First state title in school history)
• Track and Field - The team won their first 7-5A District Championship in 2012.
• Ultimate Frisbee - 3rd in CHS State Championships.
• Wrestling
• Quidditch

• Administration Building
• Advancement Office
• Alumni Memorial Theater
• Art Building
• Band Building
• Benilde Hall: a three-story building.
• Briggs Assembly Center: used for campus ministry, graduation performances, fund raisers, school functions.
• Brother's Residence
• Cafeteria
• Chapel
• The Gene Bennett Sports Complex: basketball court, wrestling room, weight room, locker room, trainer's office, football coach's office
• Horack Pavilion
• Hunter Stadium
• La Salle Hall: originally used as a dormitory building, but after major renovations in 2011, the building now features over 30,000 square feet of academic space.
• Main School Building: a two-story building housing the Records/Attendance Offices.
• Maintenance Building
• New Gym - finished in fall 2015-2016 school year.
• Wolf Dome

• Houston Bates, American football player
• Andy Cannizaro, baseball player
• Khaled Mattawa, poet, translator, Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, teacher at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
• Tanner Rainey, baseball player
• Ryan Schimpf, baseball player
• Ian Somerhalder, actor and model
• Nick Simpson, Videographer

• Official website