The historic Holy Rosary Institute in Lafayette, Louisiana, is set to become the site of the long-delayed Northeast Regional Library, according to a decision this week from the civil parish council.
The 4-1 vote to lease land at the property of the former Black Catholic school came during the Lafayette Consolidated Government Council meeting on Aug. 19.
The vote brings full circle a process that has stretched over the better part of a decade. A land purchase was made for a different site last year, but the embattled Lafayette Public Library Board failed to finalize plans for the edifice.
"We've been very confident from the beginning that Holy Rosary is the ideal site for our library," said Dustin Cravins, a Black Catholic who serves as president of the Holy Rosary Redevelopment Corporation, a nonprofit affiliated with the complex.
“We're building something that will be here for generations to come that says not only to North Lafayette but to all of Lafayette and the state of Louisiana that we all matter.”
Land at the Holy Rosary Institute—founded by the Sisters of the Holy Family, a Black Catholic order of religious sisters, in 1913—was originally proposed for the Northeast Regional Library early on, but other sites later emerged, including one on Shadow Bluff Drive that was approved in 2024.
The shift back to Holy Rosary has come amid a legal push for the library’s construction to move forward, including the intervention of the parish attorney against the library board. The latter has been mired in political controversy related to its former president, conservative activist Robert Judge, a major figure in the attempts to delay construction.
Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Boulet announced earlier this year the move to the Holy Rosary site, including a lease agreement at $1 annually for 99 years, pending council approval. In 2019, the council set aside $8 million in funds for the construction of the library, which could begin next spring and be completed by 2027.
The new plan faced opposition at the council meeting from one council member, John Guilbeau, who insisted that the Shadow Bluff site remain the first priority, given that land has already been purchased. Other council members and community advocates countered that the site is less accessible and central than Holy Rosary, which sits in the heart of Northeast Lafayette next to an apartment complex and will soon house a new preschool. Guilbeau was ultimately the lone “nay” vote on the Holy Rosary lease.
Founded in Galveston, Texas, the Holy Rosary Institute moved to Lafayette in 1913 and served as a boarding high school for Black girls until boys were admitted in 1947. Despite being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the school was shuttered in the 1990s due to falling enrollment.
The larger complex is owned by the Society of the Holy Family, a nonprofit affiliated with Sisters of the Holy Family, and the Holy Rosary Redevelopment Corporation plans to restore the school building in the coming years.
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.
