The Early Years

The Initial Stage

Thomas J. Dillon, the founder of both Canada Forge Ltd. Standard Steel Construction and Dillon Crucible Co. (forerunner to Atlas Steels) built the stately home, named Grey Gables, at 182 Aqueduct St.

In 1930, Mr. Dillon presented this house and property to Archbishop Neil McNeil of the Toronto Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church to be used as a private boys’ preparatory school. In 1931, Grey Gables, Welland, became home to the first English-speaking Roman Catholic private boarding school for boys.

Father Paul Dwyer (1898-1976) was posted to St. Mary's Parish in Welland for eight years. Father had taught at Holy Cross School (in Welland) and then was the headmaster of Grey Gables for the next ten years.  At Grey Gables, Father would have taught some of the rich and powerful of Canada's Catholics including the Labatts of Labatts’ Breweries.

The   WAR  Years  

In 1941, due to financial difficulties largely caused by the War, the school, still under father Paul Dwyer’s leadership, was forced to close. ( That same year, Father Dwyer became a Royal Canadian Air Force Chaplain serving in England and Canada.)  

It was at that time that Cardinal McGuigan of Toronto invited the School Sisters of Notre Dame to open a private  co-educational school at Grey Gables. In August of 1941, Sister Rosalia Schneider found herself in charge of six others Sisters and a school with grades 1-10 to be opened in one month’s time.

With aid from the parishioners of Welland, Notre Dame School opened in Sept. 1941 with eighty-one day pupils and ten boarders in Grades 1-10, twenty-nine music students and six art students. Tuition fees were kept low with funds supplemented by parish donations, music and art lessons, and PTA activities.

Post War Years

 In 1945, Cardinal McGuigan invited the Holy Cross Fathers to consider founding a High School in East Toronto within three years.

The English-speaking Vice-Province of Holy Cross Fathers was small and still in its infancy stage, having only recently (1943) become independent from the French Holy Cross Fathers. Nonetheless, four Holy Cross Fathers, Bill Maloughney, Tom Hennessey, Ted McCarthy, and Pat Fogarty enrolled at Ontario College of Education to become qualified to teach in Ontario.

Meanwhile, back in Welland, the School Sisters of Notre Dame found that the High School Section of their school, Notre Dame, was becoming too large.

In the Spring of 1947, Cardinal McGuigan asked the Holy Cross Fathers to choose between starting a school in East Toronto or go to the Niagara Peninsula, where a house awaited. Welland won out.

Father Ted McCarthy was appointed principal of the High School-to-be and arrived in Welland in early July, 1947. The new school was to be housed at the Cooper House at 201 Niagara Street, a property recently purchased by the archdiocese.

In late August 1947, Father Ted McCarthy, along with Father Pat Fogarty and two school Sisters of  Notre Dame, Sister Leon and Sister Celestine, formed the teaching staff.

The new, co-educational Notre Dame College School, expecting 90+ students, was forced to delay its opening in September because the desks had not arrived. For the first few weeks, school was held in the basement of St.Mary’s Church on Hellems Ave.