Austin Catholic Preparatory School
| Austin Catholic Preparatory School | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Address | |
|
18300 East Warren Avenue Detroit, Michigan 48224 United States |
|
| Coordinates | 42°24′34″N 82°54′56″W / 42.40944°N 82.91556°WCoordinates: 42°24′34″N 82°54′56″W / 42.40944°N 82.91556°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Private, All-Male |
| Motto |
Tolle Lege (Take and Read) |
| Religious affiliation(s) |
Roman Catholic, Augustinians |
| Founded | 1951 |
| Opened | 1952 |
| Status | closed |
| Closed | 1978 |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Color(s) | Black and White |
| Fight song | The Glory of the Black and White |
| Nickname | Austin Friars |
| Newspaper | The Friar |
| Yearbook | Magistro |
| Graduates | 3,212 |
Austin Catholic Preparatory School was an all–male, non–residential college preparatory school in Detroit, Michigan. Austin was "one of the city's most widely respected schools." The school was founded in 1951 and operated by the Catholic Order of Augustinians. Its first class graduated in 1956. Austin was closed in 1978 due to declining enrollment and a desire by the Augustinians to sell the school's property.
Throughout its existence, Austin functioned in an unremarkable, austere, cinder block and brick building on an eleven-acre site at the corner of East Warren Avenue and Canyon Street on the far east side of Detroit, adjacent to the Grosse Pointes. Its spartan facilities included a gymnasium, library, and chapel, but no auditorium, swimming pool, track, or football stadium. Drawing most of its students from Detroit and the eastern suburbs, by its closing Austin had graduated 3,212 young men.
Austin's insignia displays a bishop's mitre at the top, referring to the episcopal status of St. Augustine of Hippo, patron of the Augustinians. Below the mitre are the words TOLLE LEGE ("take and read"), from an incident described by Augustine in his Confessions leading to his conversion to Christianity. The middle of the shield is divided into two halves: the right half showing a lily and the year 388 A.D., and the left half a pelican and the year 1250 A.D. The lily and pelican are perhaps borrowed from the crest of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, which stands on the site of the 13th-Century priory of the Austin Friars. A pelican, which in medieval legend fed her young with her own blood and so came to represent the Holy Eucharist, also appears in the crest of the Augustinian saint, Thomas of Villanova. As to the years in the insignia, St. Augustine arranged a community of prayer at his North African estate in 388, and 1250 is the approximate year that the Austin Friars were established in England, and thus in the English-speaking world.
According to a study by the University of Michigan, Austin sent more than 90 percent of its graduates on to college. Austin was accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and had chapters of the National Honors Society and Quill and Scroll.
...
Wikipedia