St. Benedict Academy High School, Erie PA

Saint Benedict Academy (SBA), Erie's first private academy for girls, opened its doors in 1869. This school was in existence for nearly 119 years and was run by the Catholic Diocese of Erie, PA.

St. Ben's was located at 330 East 10th St., to the east of St. Mary's grade school, and around the block from St. Mary's Catholic Church.

The final SBA class graduated in 1988. Sr. Annette Marshall was the principal and there were 13 lay teachers and seven Benedictine Sisters of Erie. 241 girls attended SBA in its final year.

The school colors were navy and white. The new St. Ben's Academy was dedicated Dec. 8, 1955.
The SBA basketball team was District 10 AA champs in 1980.

"St. Ben's was a great high school," said Cherie DeMichele. "It changed our lives in that the teachers we had were Benedictines, and they stressed caring about the oppressed and getting involved in protests, marches, etc. We volunteered to see what it was like to only have a cup of rice to eat a day, we wrote letters asking the government to ban the B-1 bomber, we wore Huelga! buttons and got involved in the UFW strike and supported Cesar Chavez, etc. I was in the class of '78 but they closed in '88 or '89. I miss that school. We had more than an English and math education there. We had a social justice education. I am still very active in social justice issues to this day."

This article is in progress. Still need:
1) Notable teachers
2) Notable graduates

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Hold Your Cards! BINGO at St. Mary's in 1961

May 26, 1961 ad in the Erie Morning News.

Hold Your Cards! B-I-N-G-O at St. Mary's Every Fri. and Sat. Night!

Get out your daubers and your lucky charms and set 'em up. It's time for B-I-N-G-O! St. Mary's auditorium was packed to the rafters every Friday and Saturday night in the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties. People were crammed into the auditorium, on the stage, in the hallway leading to the school and in the school itself. 

Women had bingo cards spread across the table in front of them. Some would play more than a dozen cards at a time, covering the numbers with red or green ink from a dauber, or vintage translucent red bingo chips. A cloud of cigarette smoke hung in the air.

The kitchen served burgers, fries, pop, slices of pies and scoops of ice cream. Chances are pretty good that someone in your family played bingo at St. Mary's on East 10th and German in Erie, Pennsylvania at least once a week. Busses brought loads of people from throughout the region to play here.

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