EDUCATION
20
ANTHONY INSWASTY
Bridges applauds the performance of one of her students during the rehearsal
in the dance studio at the Crain House on Orange Avenue.
tained words from Sister John Francis: “We soon became
aware that we were the first ‘nuns’ ever to come to Fort
Pierce. A day or so after we arrived, Sister Sabina and I were
walking down the street when a huckster driving his horse
and cart spied us, garbed as we were in our white habits and
black veils. His shock at the sight of us knew no bounds. He
let go the reins, raised his arms to the sky, and exclaimed:
‘Glory be to God, what are them?’”
As the number of Catholic families grew in St. Lucie
County, the structure was able to house grades 2-12 until the
1960s. Kindergarten and first-grade classes were conducted
in a wooden structure at the north end of the property. In
the ‘60s, the church received donations and a plot of land on
South 33rd Street from George F. Guettler and his wife, Christine,
to build a new elementary school. After the opening of
the new grade school, the Orange Avenue campus housed
only high school classes, changing its name from St. Anastasia
High School to Central Catholic High School and adding
buses that helped graduates of St. Joseph’s Catholic School in
Stuart and St. Helen’s Catholic School in Vero Beach continue
their Catholic school educations beyond eighth grade. The
last class to graduate from Central Catholic High School was
the Class of 1965. The remaining high school students were
moved in the fall of 1965 to the campus of the new John Carroll
High School that had been built on the church property
along Delaware Avenue west of 33rd Street.
Bridges plans to use the first floor of the building for the
classes Lindsay School of the Arts offers to young people
and adults. The second floor will be open to the public with >>
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