Loreto Catholic girls college grows its prestige around The Acacias mansion at Maryattville from 1920
The Acacias mansion on the corner of Kensington and Portrush roads, Marryatville, became home to Loreto College from 1920.
Image courtesy Loreto College
Loreto College found its permanent home at The Acacias, the former grand home and estate of brewer, politician and benefactor Edwin Smith, in the Adelaide eastern suburb of Marryatville in 1920.
With 1,000 students from Reception to Year 12, including 70 boarders, in the 21st century, Loreto College was started by Mary Ward’s Institute of the Blessed Mary Catholic nuns in a small house in Sydenham Road, Norwood, in 1905, with five students.
Two years later, they bought a larger house on the corner of Eastry Street and The Parade, Norwood, before more growth forced to move purchase of The Acacias on 5.25 acres at Marryatville. It opened as a school in 1921. The junior school was housed in The Acacias ballroom, the billiard room became the dining room, and the original dining room was converted to a chapel. Senior classes were in two ground-floor rooms on the ground floor, and boarders slept on the first floor. The nuns had the former servants' quarters.
By 1925, the stables were converted into junior school classrooms and the former ballroom became the chapel in 1946, with the former chapel a dining room for boarders from 1947. A wing ws opened in 1951 with classrooms downstairs and boarders’ dormitories its prestige upstairs.
A science laboratory and classrooms were added in 1959, followed by the junior school (1961) and the senior school’s Mary Ward wing (1961). Gymnasium and art area were built in 1998 – the last year the college had boy students who were accepted at St Ignatius and Rostrevor Catholic colleges around that time.
Loreto won awards for its junior school administration and its Stage 3 extensions in 2000-01. It kept expanding with new classrooms for Year 7 students and Chinese language instruction, the Bapthorpe early learning centre (coeducational) and a hospitality and food technology centre from 2006. A new boarding precinct and St Gertrude's music centre were opened in 2007 with St Anne's performing arts centre in 2010.
Loreto produced Rhodes Scholars Alyssa Fitzpatrick (2013) and Danielle Fitzpatrick (2016), while other high-profile graduates were Helen McCabe, editor in chief of The Australian Women’s Weekly; Libby Kosmala, nine Paralympic shooting gold medals; Emily Beaton, Adelaide Thunderbirds netballer; and Jessica Adamson and Amelia Mulcahy of Channel 7 News Adelaide.
