Historical Marker
St. Mary's Academy
Amarillo, Potter County · Texas
Erected 1982
The academy's move followed the church's own shift to Amarillo. The first Catholic church in the Panhandle, St. Mary's at Clarendon, was built in 1892 for mostly Irish and German railroad workers, and in 1902 Father David Henry Dunn moved church headquarters to Amarillo, the railroad crossroads. German Catholic farming parishes followed, the first at Nazareth in 1903 and thirteen around Amarillo by 1913. In 1926 the church created the Diocese of Amarillo, 70 1/2 counties reaching south to Kimble, Sutton and Crockett, and its first bishop, Rudolph A. Gerken, founded what became Alamo Catholic High School.
What the plaque says
St. Mary's Academy Established by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in 1899, St. Mary's Academy was originally located in Clarendon (60 mi. SE). In 1913 the institution was moved to Amarillo through the efforts of The Rev. David H. Dunn and the local Knights of Columbus council. The original section of this three-story brick schoolhouse was completed the same year. Later additions were constructed to accommodate the school's growth. Operated by the Amarillo Diocese since 1945, St. Mary's Academy has played a vital role in the educational development of the area. (1982)
Where it stands
35.20256, -101.84885 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Route 66 Sixth Street Historic District — 1.2 miThirteen blocks of Amarillo's streetcar suburb that Route 66 turned into a roadside strip, from the 1922 Nat to Texaco, Phillips and Dutch Mill stations, now shops and bars.
- Helium Centennial Time Columns Monument — 3.6 miFour sealed time capsules raised in Amarillo in 1968 for helium's centennial, in the city that for years produced almost all the world's commercial helium from the Cliffside field.
- Cadillac Ranch — 7.9 miTen Cadillacs from 1949 to 1963 planted nose down in a pasture west of Amarillo by the Ant Farm collective in 1974, on private land where visitors are let in to paint them.
- Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum — 16 miThe Panhandle's great collection, some two million objects behind a 1933 Art Deco hall carved with cattle brands, closed to the public since March 2025 over fire-safety violations.