by David E. Schroeder
Special to NKyTribune
The Sisters of Notre Dame have been holding a Fourth of July Festival in Park Hills since 1922. The festival has evolved over time. During the past century, it has featured one-dollar chicken dinners, games of chance, boxing matches, exhibits detailing the sisters’ work in the region, music, the raffling of a car and even a house or two!
Today, the proceeds go to support the sisters’ work in their school in Africa. But originally, the festival was held to build the sisters’ home, affectionately called St. Joseph Heights, on the Dixie Highway in Park Hills. Although the festival began in 1922, the Sisters’ history in our region runs even deeper.
The Sisters of Notre Dame were founded in 1850 in Germany by two young women to minister to orphans and the poor. Very quickly they expanded their work to education. The order grew over time and expanded quickly by adding new schools and a major orphanage to their work.
During the 1870s, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck began a program called the Kulturkampf. One of this movement’s goals was to unify the German nation under the Protestant faith. As a result, a series of anti-Catholic laws were passed in 1875 that restricted the sisters from wearing their habits, forcing them to give up their schools and other works, and forbade them from accepting new members. At this time, several hundred Sisters of Notre Dame made the decision to leave their homeland and head for America. The first sisters arrived in New York Harbor on July 4, 1876! This arrival date solidified their long association with Independence Day.
These early Sisters of Notre Dame in the United States were sent to Cleveland, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky. In Covington, they agreed to staff many German-American Catholic schools, took on the work of operating St. Joseph Orphanage in Cold Springs, and established Notre Dame Convent and Academy at the southeast corner of Fifth and Montgomery Streets. For many years, the sisters held a Kermess, or festival, in the autumn at their academy to raise funds to help with their work with the poor. For a number of years these events included raffling off live turkeys. Can you imagine your spouse or child coming home with a live turkey?
As Notre Dame Academy and the number of sisters grew, the building on Fifth Street was becoming overcrowded. Trusting in providence, the sisters purchased a piece of property on the old Lexington and Covington Turnpike (now the Dixie Highway in Park Hills) in 1907. Their first home on this site is now the Park Hills Animal Hospital. In time, the sisters purchased additional nearby farmland and began plans for a new motherhouse. The only problem was a lack of funds.
A group of men from across the region, who were members of the parishes where the sisters taught, began an organization called the St. Joseph Heights Home Association. The goal was to raise funds to build the new motherhouse. John F. Cook of Cincinnati was the first President.
That same year, the organization held the first Fourth of July Festival on the property. The festival was so successful that the Sisters were able to break ground on their new home, St. Joseph Heights, in 1926, and the cornerstone was laid on September 12th of the same year. The convent was dedicated on November 26, 1927 and quickly became a landmark in the community. The beautiful Gothic building still stands and remains the center of spiritual and community life for the Sisters of Notre Dame in our region.
Despite the completion of the new St. Joseph Heights, the annual Fourth of July Festival continued to be held to pay the mortgage on the building. Once the mortgage had been paid, proceeds from the festival went to support the charitable works of the sisters.
Today, proceeds are sent to the Sisters’ mission in the African nation of Uganda, where they operate a school for the young women of the region who are often denied an education due to the extreme poverty of the region or cultural circumstances.
David E. Schroeder is Director of the Kenton County Public Library, the author of Life Along the Ohio: A Sesquicentennial History of Ludlow, Kentucky (2014), and coeditor of Gateway City: Covington, Kentucky, 1815-2015.(2015)
I attended Kindergarten at St Joseph Heights. I guess around 1951 or so. They had school bus that picked us up at the house. I remember a name of Mr. Wheathouse as the driver, I may be mixing that name up with someone else. He would drop us off at a bus shelter near the school. I remember being in play. I still have memories of those days. The toys in the basement rooms (where the kindergarten was located). Having cookies and milk. One day I must have been ill, because they took me to a little room with a bed.
I just had to share this. Thank you.