The Sisters of Divine Providence had opened their first Academy in 1889, at Mt. St. Martin Convent, shortly after their arrival in Newport. The Academy began with an enrollment of three pupils and conferred honors on its first graduating class in June, 1896.

After the elapse of twelve years, the growth of the Academy and of the Novitiate made it imperative that the Academy be established separately. On August 23, 1902, the Sisters purchased the site of the present Academy Notre Dame of Providence on East Sixth Street and Linden Avenue, at that time a newly opened residential district of Newport. The new building was begun immediately. On August 23, 1903, the five story brick building of Renaissance style, was dedicated by Bishop Maes. The Academy opened as a day school in September of that year, with an enrollment of one hundred pupils, boys being admitted into the grade school department. The high school department offered three courses—Classical, English and Commercial. 

In October, 1905, the Academy was affiliated with the University of Kentucky at Lexington. By 1910, the Alumnae of the Academy numbered sixty-four. In 1914, the Academy was also affiliated with the Catholic University of America at Washington, D.C. 

In September, 1929, Bishop Howard selected the Academy Notre Dame of Providence as the Central Catholic High School for girls of Campbell County. The classes expanded so extensively as a result, that in June, 1934, the grade school department was discontinued and the institution turned its efforts exclusively to secondary education. As a Central Catholic High School, the Academy retained its title, Academy Notre Dame of Providence. 

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