Fontbonne Hall Academy

9915REAR Shore Road | also 9901 Shore Road | Bay Ridge | built 1937

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1937
The Sisters of St. Joseph buy a former villa and open Fontbonne Hall as a girls' high school
Fontbonne Hall opened in Bay Ridge in 1937, sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph. The building was put up in the late 19th century as a villa by the financier Diamond Jim Brady, and school legend says he had it built for the actress Lillian Russell. When the sisters inspected it shortly after buying it, they found it had once been a nightclub, and they had the barroom wallpaper, patterned with wine glasses, cigarettes and dice, taken down.
Source: thetablet.org
1957
Ita Ford, later a missionary and martyr, graduates with Fontbonne's class of 1957
Sister Ita Ford belonged to the Fontbonne Hall class of 1957. When the school celebrated its 75th year in 2013, its leaders named her among the graduates who had become martyrs for their cause. A list of notable alumnae describes her as a missionary.
“…even, like Sister Ita Ford, class of 1957, martyrs for their cause.”
Source: Wikipedia
2023
Fontbonne plans a new main entrance on Shore Road with a front lawn and glass doors
In 2023 the school was renovating to move its main entrance to Shore Road, at a cost its project leader estimated at more than $1 million. Students and faculty had long used the 99th Street side as the entry. The plan replaces the blue doors with glass ones, adds two storefront-sized windows and a new roof, and creates a front lawn. Sister Maria Pascuzzi led the project.
Source: thetablet.org

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