Today’s Chaminade-Julienne Catholic High School is a longtime downtown anchor. It has existed in its current form since 1973, but the school has roots that can be traced back to previous institutions that were established long before.
The story begins at the historic campus of the University of Dayton (then St. Mary’s Institute), which in its early years also offered preparatory education.
In the 1920s, the Marianist high school moved from campus to the Notre Dame Academy building downtown at Franklin and Ludlow Streets, near Emmanuel Catholic Church.
The building had been a school run by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.
It became Chaminade High School for boys, named after the founder of the Marianist order, William Joseph Chaminade.
The girls relocated and opened Julienne High School in northwest Dayton.
Below we will delve into the history of the buildings associated with these schools, which unfortunately do not survive to the present day having been demolished at different points in history.
Images and History of Notre Dame Academy / Chaminade High School
Historic images courtesy of Dayton Metro Library
This building was demolished in 1959.
Above: a Journal Herald article from July 1959 showing the demolition of the then-Chaminade High School building.
Julienne High School: History and Images
The school building at 325 Homewood Avenue was built in 1926, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Classical Revival style structure was designed by Howard W. Germann.
The school was originally called the Notre Dame Academy de Julienne. The sisters had purchased a 14-acre site known as the Old Barney Homestead which later became the home of Peter Kuntz. It was then considered part of greater Dayton View, today within the boundaries of the Five Oaks neighborhood.
In its very first year of 1927, the high school had an enrollment of 500 students. Julienne and Chaminade High Schools were the city’s only Catholic high schools at the time, but they would be joined by St. Joseph Commercial High School in 1946.
Then in 1959, the archdiocese launched a campaign aimed at expanding the area’s Catholic high schools which eventually resulted in the formation of Carroll High School in 1961 and Alter High School in 1962.
Both Chaminade and Julienne both experienced significant enrollment declines, and in 1973 the schools merged to become today’s Chaminade-Julienne High School.
Julienne’s historic building was used by Dayton Christian Schools from 1974 to 2004 when it was purchased by Dayton Public Schools to use as a temporary space for schools, including by Stivers High School during a major renovation until 2007.
After that, despite significant efforts to save the building, it was demolished in 2012.
An article from 2010 explains that originally Dayton Public Schools planned to raze the building and replace it with a new elementary school. Neighborhood leaders had urged the district to instead renovate the historic building, but the whole plan would eventually be scrapped.
And two years later, the district moved forward with razing the school. A spokesperson at the time said that “we made a promise to the community that at the conclusion of our construction project we would leave no eyesores or hazards in the neighborhoods, and that “a vacant building can attract some undesirable elements to a neighborhood that can create health and safety issues.”
These statements were made at the same time that community groups pushed for a delay to continue to explore options for renovating the historic building for another use.
A fiery Dayton Daily News article pushed back on the district’s claims, saying that “eyesore isn’t the word that I find most offensive in the district’s defense of destroying one of Montgomery County’s historic treasures. The most offensive word is ‘promise.’ Here’s the real promise that is being made to generations of Dayton schoolchildren: We promise to teach you to value new and shiny over our region’s history … We promise we will preserve fewer of Dayton’s historic school buildings than any other major district in the state. We promise that you will one day understand the words of the great Joni Mitchell: ‘You don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone.'”
Another article quoted an advocate of adaptive reuse saying that “we would be joining other progressive cities across the nation that are realizing the wisdom in preserving and putting architecturally significant, structurally sound and aesthetically pleasing buildings to productive community use.”
But the old school nevertheless still met the wrecking ball.
And new construction, for a school or other project, never came for the area, which remained vacant land.
Only more recently did a $72 million workforce housing project called the HōM Flats at Forest aim to bring 260 units to a larger 13-acre site.
Michigan-based Magnus Capital Partners said it had closed on the financing in December 2025.
Rare Images of Julienne High School Prior to Demolition: Interior and Exterior
Dayton Vistas reader and Dayton Christian School graduate Julie Prior reached out and shared that she was able to walk through the school before it was demolished and take some photos. They are included below.
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