History

In the mid-1880s, Southern Maryland residents, Colonel and Mrs. Richard H. Miles, purchased property in Leonardtown. They offered this property, known as Rose Hill, to the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) on condition they establish and cultivate a Catholic school. In the spring of 1884, Father Charles Jenkins, S.J. invited Mother Helena Torney and Sister Marie Meynard, Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (SCN), to Rose Hill. Traveling from Kentucky, the sisters must have thought it providence, as Southern Maryland was the very birthplace of their founder, Mother Catherine Spalding. With a faculty of four sisters, Sister Madeline Sharkey, SCN took up the challenge and opened St. Mary's Academy in the fall of 1885.

St. Mary's Academy grew rapidly as a co-educational boarding school and accepted students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The burgeoning population of St. Mary's County and Southern Maryland soon rendered the academy too small and a new school building was erected in 1936. In 1956, the school expanded yet again with a dormitory, convent, and new chapel. But with the opening of the new all boys' Ryken High School, the Sisters at St. Mary's Academy carried on their selfless dedication as a school for young women.

St. Mary's Academy continued its education mission until 1981, when St. Mary's Ryken High School became heir to the rich traditions of both parent institutions. Since their inceptions, St. Mary's Academy, Ryken High School, and St. Mary's Ryken have proudly graduated over 7,200 students (more than 2,700 from St. Mary's Ryken).