106 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {landmark} words by DYLAN LANIER • photography by ROBB MOST LANDMARK sacred heart’s treasure For over a century, Sacred Heart Schools in Atherton has graced the Peninsula not just with its academics but also with its beauty. Aesthetically blending old and new, the 63-acre campus on Valparaiso Avenue has changed a lot over the years, like adding eco-friendly learning spaces and a sustainable farm. Despite those changes, a brief visit to its grounds immediately makes it clear that the Main Building reigns over the rest of the campus. The stately, 125-year-old edifice boasts a stylish mansard roof and bell tower, a tranquil chapel, inviting main floor parlors and a striking porte-cochère. Its Romanesque elements resemble those of nearby Saint Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, also designed by architect Charles Devlin. Constructed on land purchased from the Faxon Dean Atherton family (the town’s namesake), the Main Building survived the Great Earthquake of 1906 as well as 1989’s Loma Prieta quake, though not without some damage. Today, it contains administrative offices, classrooms and living quarters, housing both students and members of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a global community of Catholic women founded in 1800. When its doors first opened in 1898, it was an allgirls boarding school known as the Academy of the Sacred Heart with an inaugural class of just 23 students. Currently, the Main Building is one of about eight primary instructional buildings serving nearly 1,200 boys and girls from preschool to 12th grade, and it remains to this day the eyecatching architectural centerpiece of the campus. HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF SACRED HEART SCHOOLS, ATHERTON
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