The Notre Dame Institute is a
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
.
In 1947, Rev. Enrique Dulay with a group of town leaders—including Francisco Abena, Juana D. Diaz, Enrique Calub, Esperanza Pulido, Gregoria D. Yaranon, Demetrio Bautista, Alipio Diaz, and Isidro Floreza—founded the first high school of the town. The foundation of the school coincided with the feast of
Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes (french: Notre-Dame de Lourdes) is a title of the Virgin Mary. She is venerated under this title by the Roman Catholic church due to her apparitions that occurred in Lourdes, France. The first apparition of 11 February 1858, o ...
, and was named ''Notre Dame'' in honor of the
Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...
. With the construction of the
FACOMA building, the school started with a class for each of the four grades of high school. Notre Dame graduated its first students one year later in 1948.
As enrollment grew, new buildings were built on
farmland
Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...
east of the
national highway. The school relocated to its present site to accommodate a growing student body. This new building was destroyed less than 30 years later by the
1990 Luzon earthquake
The 1990 Luzon earthquake struck the island of Luzon in the Philippines at 4:26 p.m. on July 16 ( PDT) or 3:26 p.m. ( PST) with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.7 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (''Violent'') and produced a 1 ...
, along with its centuries-old church and
rectory
A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage.
Function
A clergy house is typically ow ...
. The school continued to operate with scattered makeshift shelters, or under the shade of trees until construction of the new building was completed.
{{coord missing, Philippines
Schools in La Union