On a day when the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Western Washington blessed and sprinkled holy water on a new school building, students at Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy High School gave thanks Friday for the opportunities it will bring.
Mary Catey, a senior and the school’s student body president, looks forward to "Fiddler on the Roof" rehearsals in the student center of the $1.28 million Grace Hall.
"It’s going to be great," she said.
Michael Dean, a sophomore, likes the new lunchroom.
"It’s pretty cool," he said, surveying the inside of the new student center. "It’s nice to have a cafeteria so we don’t have to eat in the gym."
Grace Hall is the second major permanent building on the campus. For now, it adds three new classrooms, the student center and a basement storage area. Unfinished is the top floor, which can add up to eight classrooms as enrollment increases.
The independent Catholic school northeast of Mill Creek enrolls 332 students in grades nine through 12. The new building will allow the school to gradually expand enrollment to 450.
Years from now, the school could add a third large classroom building, bringing enrollment to about 600.
In many ways, Friday’s Mass and ceremony was as much a celebration of Catholic education as it was a building dedication.
Seattle Archbishop Alex Brunett said students benefit greatly from the Catholic school, where they can learn faith and principles and not just prepare for a career.
"I appreciate all that has been done here and all that has been accomplished," he said.
Principal Kristine Brynildsen-Smith reminded school supporters, many of whom attended Catholic schools as children, that they were helping build a school for many generations.
"This school is built to be here for 100 years," she said.
Brynildsen-Smith said she is also proud of the fact the school has three National Merit Scholars in a senior class of 81 students.
Among the donors recognized for their contributions to the new building were Fred and Dawn Hines of Snohomish.
Grace Hall is named for Fred Hines’ mother, Grace Hines, and the couple’s daughter, Anna Grace Hines, who was 56 days old when she died unexpectedly in her sleep in 1998.
The Hines’ five other children, ages 2 to 14, will enroll at Archbishop Murphy in the years ahead, Fred Hines said.
A building at St. Mary Magdalen, a kindergarten through eighth-grade school in Everett, is also named for Anna Grace, a tiny baby born one month premature.
"It’s wonderful in that it relates to both of these people," Dawn Hines said about the naming of Grace Hall. "Obviously, Anna would have been at these schools, and Grace has the most solid faith that has just really shined through."
At no time was that faith more evident than in 2002, when she was diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer, Dawn Hines said. Today, Grace Hines, 69, is healthy enough to be preparing for a cruise.
Gaffney Construction Co. of Everett built Grace Hall. The project was finished early and under budget, school officials said.
The school opened its current campus in 1999 with 254 students. Before that, it was known as Holy Cross High School and was located in a building that once housed Our Lady of Perpetual Help Grade School on Cedar Street in Everett. It began with 23 freshmen and sophomores in 1988.
Archbishop Murphy High School serves Snohomish, Island, King and Skagit counties. The 22-acre campus, built on an old potato farm, is the only Catholic high school from north Seattle to the Canadian border.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
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