Schools
-
St. Thomas Aquinas
A Long History of Providing Catholic Education.
A Catholic School was begun in the parish in 1830 in the basement of the Church of Saint John. When this building was torn down to make way for the Church of Saint Thomas Aquinas, temporary quarters were found for the school across the street. Somewhat later a two room school was built on leased land at Sixth and Elberon (then Center) Street. It was the first building built as a Catholic School in Zanesville. It was used for about ten years before a new and larger school was built across the street from the church. In this early period instruction was given by laymen to the boys and by laywomen to the girls.In 1853 Dominican Sisters took charge of the school. Because their rule discouraged the teaching of boys, two brothers of the Holy Cross from Notre Dame taught the boys in the years 1857-59. When the Brothers left, laymen took their place until 1866. At that time, the Sisters started to teach the younger boys and -- with a modification of their rule -- in the 1870's When the school building built in the 1850's could no longer meet the needs of the parish. In March 1921, the old building was razed and the new school, on the same site, was blessed on May 1, 1922. Within a few months a four year High School program was begun. About 1950, with the merger of Saint Thomas Aquinas High School and Saint Nicholas High School into Bishop Rosecrans High School, the building was given over entirely to Saint Thomas Elementary School.
In 2006, Zanesville's two Catholic elementary schools St. Thomas Aquinas School and St. Nicholas School consolidated to form Bishop Fenwick School.