Our History

In 1849 the first Catholic, John Reynolds, arrived in Olmsted Falls.  The first Mass was celebrated in 1854 in a log house belonging to the village. Fr. Louis Filiere was the first pastor of St. Mary of the Falls in 1856.  The parish school was started in 1873 and closed in 1900 during the financial panic that gripped the nation during that time.

In 1948, the first church was destroyed by a fire.  In 1949, the parish built the school building with the basement to be used as a church.  The school was staffed by the Sisters of St. Joseph. In 1958, because of increased enrollment, two portable buildings, former barracks, were moved 35 miles from Christ the King Parish in East Cleveland to St. Mary of the Falls.  These became classrooms for the primary grades.

When the decision was made to increase the size of St. Mary of the Falls School, in 1958 two buildings which had served as army barracks during the war were brought from Christ the King Church in East Cleveland and joined together to service the children in the primary grades.  It sat on the Taylor Road side of the parking lot, separate from the original school.  When construction began on the present school building in 1997, that building was demolished.  In the process, a copy of the Cleveland Plain Dealer was found in the walls of the 2^nd grade classroom showing a picture of General Pershing returning from the war.  What was thought to be a building from World War II turned out to be from World War I.  Prior to the demolition of the primary school building the decision was made to save a colorful mural of Jesus and the Children that had been painted on the hallway wall outside the 2^nd grade classroom.  That section of the wall was removed and installed in the hallway where the new school joined with the original brick building which had been built in 1949 and together today forms the present St. Mary of the Falls School.