History

List of 4 items.

• History

  The historic Tudor House mansion that Gilmour’s Admission, Advancement, Business, Communication and Marketing Offices now call home was completed in 1924. It was commissioned by Cleveland industrialist and founder of the Cleveland Foundry Co. Francis E. Drury as a near-replica of his original home on Euclid Avenue’s Millionaires' Row.

• Founding

  In 1945, Brothers Theophane Schmitt and Gonzaga Day of the Congregation of Holy Cross of Notre Dame, Indiana, purchased the Gates Mills, Ohio, property, known locally as Cedar Hill Farm. They oversaw its rehabilitation and in 1946 founded Gilmour Academy, named for the Right Reverend Richard Gilmour. The second bishop of the Diocese of Cleveland, Gilmour was a vocal advocate of Catholic education from his appointment in 1872 to his death in 1891.

• Early Years

  Initially an all-boys school, Gilmour welcomed its first students in the fall of 1946 and graduated its first class in 1950. At the time, classes were conducted primarily in Tudor House, with additional space established in the property’s remaining farm outbuildings.
  
  In 1968, the Sacred Heart Sisters purchased 35 acres from Gilmour Academy, opening the all-girl Glen Oak School a year later. Gilmour and Glen Oak maintained separate identities, though the two institutions held some joint classes and social opportunities.

• Today

  A middle school was added in 1974, and Gilmour and Glen Oak merged in 1982. Glen Oak’s school building was transformed into Gilmour’s Lower School in 1986.

  
  Though the facilities continue to evolve, Gilmour Academy has never strayed from its commitment to educating the whole person, incorporating the teachings of Holy Cross founder Blessed Father Basil Moreau, who declared, “We shall always place education side by side with instruction; the mind will not be cultivated at the expense of the heart.