HISTORY

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THE CHURCH 

The Parish of St. Peter was founded in 1933 in the Gaspee Plateau section of Warwick. Reverend Patrick W. McHugh served as the first pastor. McHugh had previously served as assistant at St. Paul’s Church in Edgewood. It took 25 years before St. Peter’s church was able to establish a parish school. Father DeVaney, Father Raymond Beaulieu, and Father William Gillooly broke ground in March of 1958. Within one year, an additional ground-breaking ceremony was held for St. Peter’s Convent. Prior to the convent’s opening, the four Sisters of Mercy hired to staff the school had to travel from St. Xavier Convent in Providence. They did this during the first year and a half of the school’s existence. The Convent at St. Peter was completed in 1960 to house the four Sisters. Amazingly, one of these original faculty members, Sister Mary Francis Ryan, RSM, still resides on the campus at St. Peter’s.

THE SCHOOL

The school opened in September of 1959 with two first and two second grades. The first class, consisting of a grand total of 39 students, graduated from St. Peter’s in June, 1966. Additional grades were added as the need arose, including a kindergarten program that began in 1975. Today the school runs through grade eight, and includes two pre-school rooms; a program for 4-year-olds began in 1980 and one for 3-year-olds began in 2007. Photos commemorating each of the graduating classes proudly hang in the front hall of the school today. These graduation photos were the historic preservation work of former long-standing principal, Sister Mary Angelus.