The San Francisco elementary school that’s immersed a who’s who of the city’s French immigrants and well-heeled children in a healthy dose of French and religion is marking the 100th anniversary of its founding.
École Notre Dame des Victoires, the French Catholic elementary school on the slope of Pine Street in downtown San Francisco, was founded by Marist priests in 1924, as a companion to the church that shares the site and its name. The school was founded with the vision of creating a hub of French culture, catering to the city’s then-population of French immigrants.
“The Marist fathers knew that in order to have a thriving parish and rebuild the French immigrant community, they needed to have a thriving school,” Principal Sarah Currier said. “And so they decided to open this.”
To fill the school’s need of teachers, nuns from the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in France agreed to come to San Francisco, but only on the condition they could teach French and religion every day.
A century later, the school’s nearly 300 students still wear the traditional dress of crisp blue sailor suits for boys and girls in dresses with ties. The school’s alumni include the ranks of the city’s elite. Former student Gov. Gavin Newsom once donned the sailor outfit — with a matching bowl haircut. Students spend 45 minutes a day apprendre a parlor Francais.
“At our founding, French was very important to the school because we served a French immigrant population,” Currier said. “Most of the school families were native French speakers.”
San Francisco’s French population was once so robust that in 1960 when then-French President Charles de Gaulle planned a trip to the U.S., his only stops included New Orleans and San Francisco.
The city honored De Gaulle with a gathering on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall rotunda, with a choir from École Notre Dame des Victoires on hand to serenade him. The event was captured in a photo that hangs in the lobby of the school.
Bernadette Lorda, who graduated from the grammar school in 1965, appears in the photo, her hair cut into a short bob, standing midway up the steps from de Gaulle. To mark its centennial, the school recreated the famous photo by gathering on the steps of City Hall with Mayor London Breed occupying the spot of de Gaulle.
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Lorda recalled her days playing on the school’s playground, surrounded by apartment buildings, which look exactly the same today.
“You’ve got the kids in hopscotch, you’ve got people just playing tag,” Lorda said. “It’s a real urban experience, and it was like that when I was a kid.”
School leaders spent the last couple years preparing to mark the school’s anniversary. Earlier this year, a cable car was decorated in honor of the school, and this weekend the school will hold a large centennial gala at the nearby Fairmont Hotel. Students worked with artists to create art pieces that will be auctioned off.
The school, which once also included a high school that was later eliminated, has a population of about 300 grammar students. An extensive arts and music program are among its offerings, with a sophisticatedly disheveled art lab that looks as though a beret-wearing artist might pop out of the shelves at any time. French culture seems sewn into every aspect.
“French is like the best part of the day for me,” fourth grader Olivia Kohn said. “It’s super fun.”
Parent and art patron Jess Shriber said her family chose the school for her children after touring a number of other San Francisco schools. In the end, the French, the sailor suits won out.
“What really drew us to NDV was the fact that they are really rooted in the traditions and they honor those that came before us," said Shriber, using the school’s popular acronym.
Tuition at the school runs a hefty $11,000 a year, but Currier says the school offers many scholarships and grants to aid families that can’t afford the tuition, a long tradition for a school that has long prided itself on helping immigrant families.
The nuns are now gone, and French isn’t the popular language it once was in San Francisco, but the school is still thriving amid a downtown that has seen businesses close and a school district that is considering closing schools.
“Being around for 100 years says the people that founded our school were very strong,” said Currier. “And now it’s our responsibility to do that for those that will be here celebrating the 200th anniversary.”
