The Reformatory School and Orphanage / St. Louis Industrial School / St. Louis School [????- ]

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The Roman Catholic Church has run a school at this site for many years, but the name and purpose of the school has changed over time:

  1. Reformatory School and Orphanage
  2. St. Louis Industrial School
  3. St. Louis School

Partial timeline of buildings on this site:

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Photos that show this Place

31 May 1939 cover sent from the Salesian Procuration of China (St. Louis Industrial School) 179 Third Street - West Point to the USA
1939
4 March 1940 cover sent from St. Louis Industrial School (Salesian Institute) West Point - 179 Third Street to France with the stamps of both King George V and King George VI
1940
St. Louis Industrial School & Aberdeen Industrial School covers
1940s
See more photos of this place

Comments

Unlike People or Organisations, the ‘Place’ entity in use in gwulo has some limitations, when :

  • more than one organisations co-exist on same address during same/overlapping time period
  • old buildings on the address are not completely demolished to build new one

    (so cannot not be named as 1st. 2nd … generations of the Place)

David, could we suggest to cater for a new Place name St. Louis School, for clarity ?

 

Its official starting year is reckoned as 1927 currently. e.g. the 95th Anniversary was celebrated on the 2022-2023 School Year. Some more details could be found in the short notes following. Address is 179 Third Street.

With this new Place, more recent history and some entry of “Show Place(s)” may be duly linked to it instead (e.g. this ‘godowns’ photo of 1969).

    https://gwulo.com/media/19344  (**)

The existing St Louis Industrial School entry remains very useful for relating the wartime stories and linking earlier history. The industrial school began by 1927 and closed 1953 (no longer exists).

… in 1926 the Salesian Fathers commenced classes in shoemaking, carpentry, tailoring and printing; ... [1]

Interestingly, a concise history of St. Louis Industrial School was covered by VTC as part of their VPET Repository project deliverable [2]. It ceased to operate in 1953. [3] These are further supported by other information on the Catholic archives website [4] and newspaper coverage [5].

The name 聖類斯中學 (St. Louis School) came into use around 1936. [6] The Middle School (viz. Chinese Secondary section) started this year. Efforts were made for it to be recognized by the China government in 1937 but negotiations severed by the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war. The English section started in 1948. It established itself firmly as an English grammar school by 1950. [3]

Please advise if other comments or findings.

 

References :

1. Watt, Hoi-kee, “Technical Education in Hong Kong Today”, appendix I (undated), p. 26 (c. 1964)

2. https://vpet.vtc.edu.hk/wiki/index.php?title=St_Louis_Industrial_School

3. history as on the St. Louis School official site

     https://www.stlouis.edu.hk/en/history,

     important entries include : 1953, 1950, 1948, 1937, 1936.

4. Father Guarona’s tenure (1936-1946)

     https://archives.catholic.org.hk/In%20Memoriam/Clergy-Brother/J-Guarona.htm

5. as MMIS of Public Library, the name St. Louis Industrial School was still publicly referred at least up to 1950

     e.g. The China Mail in Nov. 1950

6. see e.g. H K Daily Press 1939-11-16 p. 8, Hong Kong Telegraph 1941-6-14 p. 7

 

(**)

a more interesting case is the Ellis Kadoorie School on 26-28 Hospital Road. It is said that some 15 schools have occupied same location over different periods. Supplementary information will be posted under its own entry, with few more details found when time allows.

 

It isn't always clear what's the best way to handle these more complex sites, but one way that seems to work well is to have an overview page, and then additional Place pages for the individual buildings. I've updated the text at the top of the page as an example of how that works.

Hi David,

You are right. Thanks for your kind updates and advice. The Place name now carries a neat view of the history. Also with the html archor, alternative text could be put as a shorter name. What a beauty.

We could see the additional Place pages are also good and granular, for connections to other gwulo entities (e.g. Person) and a wider web for stories to evolve on.

mwynhewch eich taith newydd, 旅途順利.  Blessings.

 

p.s. there is a bonus finding of a photo from the school’s website (link), which bears the name St. Louis Industrial School. It was dated about mid 1940s. In fact, this East Wing built with the Art Deco style facade (i.e. the block at the entrance) has been confirmed by Antiquities Advisory Board as Historic Buildings Grade 2 back in 2009.