Charleston Catholic High School

As early as 1869, Sacred Heart Church (founded in 1815) had established a parochial school and conducted primary grades irregularly throughout the late 1800s. In 1903, the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity, of Stella Niagara, New York, assumed administration of the school. In 1923, Sacred Heart added high school grades in the former Chilton house in downtown Charleston and named the institution Sacred Heart High School. In 1940, John J. Swint, the bishop of the then Diocese of Wheeling, created Charleston Catholic High School. Area Catholics contributed to the construction of a three-story building, including science laboratories and a gymnasium, completed in 1941. Post-war growth of Charleston led to the expansion of the school and the addition of a third floor in the 1950s. Enrollment peaked in the late 1960s and then began a slow decline in the mid-1980s.

In 1986, Father P. Edward Sadie, a local priest, hired Debra K. Sullivan as the principal. Enrollment rebounded through the 1990s. In 1994 a new math and science wing opened. In 2000, Charleston Catholic purchased and renovated the Players Club tennis building, adding basketball, volleyball, and training facilities.^[3] At the end of the 2013-14 school year and after 28 years as principal, Debra Sullivan announced her retirement, to be replaced by Colleen McCartney Hoyer of the CCHS graduating class of 1994, who previously served as Assistant Principal for Student Affairs.^[4][5]