At the request of Most Reverend Paul C. Schulte, Archbishop of Indianapolis, the school was built, owned and operated by the Sisters of Providence, whose motherhouse is located at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. The first freshmen, 137 students from 11 parishes in Clark, Floyd, and Harrison counties, entered on September 12, 1951. Within a decade the student population exceeded 800. In 1973, the 18 parishes of the New Albany Deanery purchased the school from the Sisters.

Providence Junior High was created in 1989 to accommodate Deanery parishes without elementary schools and/or without grades 7 and 8.  In 1995, the president-principal model was enacted and Gerald K. Wilkinson ’58 became the first president of Providence. By 1996 the Our Lady of Providence Junior-Senior High Board of Directors assumed the governance previously held by the Deanery Board. In 2006, the Board of Directors became a Board of Trustees. In the fall of 2017, the junior high was discontinued, and the name of the school went back to Our Lady of Providence High School.

Learn More:

• History of our Faith, Mission, & Vision
• History of our Academics, Leaders, & Alumni
• History of our Campus & Buildings
• History of PHS Fine Arts