DENA History

In 1845, the first U.S. citizen to become a Christian Brother completed his training in Montreal, where the Institute traces its North American beginnings back to 1837. This young man was John McMullen, who was given the name of Brother Francis. In 1845, he and an Irish-Canadian novice, Brother Edward, started conducting the already-existing school (previously staffed by laymen) at Calvert Hall in Baltimore. Today known as Calvert Hall College High School, this became the first permanent Lasallian school in the United States. 

In 1848, four Christian Brothers journeyed to New York from France, and within two months they established St. Vincent’s Parochial School on Canal Street. St. Vincent’s relocated to Second Street in 1856, and in 1887 changed its name to La Salle Academy, which stands today. 

At the request of Bishop De Charbonnel, five Brothers came to Toronto, Ontario in 1851, opening the first Lasallian school in English-speaking Canada, today known as De La Salle College “Oaklands.” 

Loyal to the charism of Saint La Salle, the Christian Brothers responded generously to the tremendous need for Catholic education in many other cities and towns throughout the U.S. By the late 1860s, the New York District was created and quickly became too large for one Brother Visitor (Provincial) to administer, with the schools and communities in the mid-Atlantic becoming the Baltimore District in 1878. With the New York District’s additional growth, the Institute established the Long Island-New England District for the schools in Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, and Rhode Island, in 1956.