Updated: Demolished in 2022 for a housing development. See historic photos and the state of construction in August of 2022.

The former John F. Kennedy Catholic High School, after a short ownership by Fontbonne University, is back up for sale out in Manchester, just to the east of Highway 141. It is accessible off the old Woods Mills Road.

I’m not going to speculate what happened to Kennedy High School; I know many people who graduated from the school and I don’t have any insight. I was totally out of the picture for the last twenty-five years. Low enrollment is usually cited and the explanation ends there.

I am told the school has a stunning theater of architectural merit.

There is a huge field out back that stretches far to the east past the buildings and the parking lots. This is a substantial piece of green space.

Long term, I suspect there is not an institutional demand for these large campuses any more, and that the property will be purchased at a price well below the current listing and will be redeveloped as housing, the original buildings demolished. It is well over twenty acres of land in West County.