Preston High School, located in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx, New York, is an all-girls Catholic college preparatory high school founded for young women by the Sisters of the Divine Compassion in 1947. The mission of PHS is to empower young women as they discover their own potential and value through a broad and challenging education, active participation in community and a commitment to Christian service, so that they may become compassionate leaders for change in the world.

Our vision is to change the world around us through compassion.

Preston High School was established in 1947 by the Sisters of the Divine Compassion, as an independent, college-preparatory Catholic school. The original school building, also known as "The Huntington Mansion" or "the mansion" to students & faculty, was the 19th century waterfront home of Collis P. Huntington, who purchased the property from Frederick C. Havemeyer, Jr. in 1883. Havemeyer had purchased the property earlier from Thomas Ash in 1862. Prestonites believe the mansion is haunted by a ghost named Archie who often gets the blame when things go missing around the building.

The estate was sold to the Sisters of the Divine Compassion in 1927 and they established the House of the Holy Family as a residence and a vocational school for girls. This was converted to a high school in 1947 and the name was changed to honor Monsignor Thomas Preston, who with Mother Mary Veronica (Mary Caroline Dannat Starr) founded the Sisters of the Divine Compassion.

The school was expanded in 1960 and in 1965 to add another building. This new building included many more classrooms, a gymnasium, a cafeteria, a library and science labs. Over the years, computer labs were added as technology changed. Today we are about to begin renovations that will provide state-of-the-art science laboratories and upgraded technology to enhance our educational programs.

The school's motto is "Virtus Mille Scuta," a Latin phrase meaning, "Virtue is a Thousand Shields." The school shield is comprised of the coat of arms of Monsignor Thomas Preston and the seal of the Sisters of the Divine Compassion.

The Sisters of the Divine Compassion Tradition

The congregation was founded in the late 19th century by Mary Caroline Dannat Starr, Msgr. Thomas Preston and a group of young women moved by the Compassion of God in their lives and a hunger to bring that compassion to New York City’s destitute children in real and tangible ways.

The congregation began as many others of the time: women gathered together to “do something" about the plight of the children of New York’s poor. For Mary and her companions it was through their “Association for Befriending Children and Young Girls." The group provided shelter, training and religious education to girls left to fend for themselves or sent by their families into the street to beg. Most importantly, the women provided safety, love and hope. Over time Mary and Msgr. Preston recognized that the future of this work depended on the stability of the organization that provided it, and so, the Sisters of the Divine Compassion came into being. Mary Starr became Mother Mary Veronica. The first ministry of the little congregation was at the House of the Holy Family on Second Avenue in Manhattan.

As social conditions for children improved, emphasis moved away from rescue and reform to insulating children from the strong anti-Catholic sentiment that prevailed. The Catholic school system grew, built on the foundation of early efforts at evangelization and protection. In the 1920’s the Sisters of the Divine Compassion were invited to staff some seven parish schools and at the same time were establishing a residence and vocational training school, a newly reconstituted House of the Holy Family on the site of the Huntington mansion in the Bronx, and developing both a private high school, Our Lady of Good Counsel Academy, and a woman’s college, Good Counsel College, in White Plains.

Over the years, the congregation transformed the House of the Holy Family into a second high school for young women, Preston High School, and served as educators in over 25 parishes in Manhattan, the Bronx, Westchester and Putnam counties.

The decade of the 1960s was characterized by social upheaval and change that also affected the Catholic Church and its religious congregations. Traditions a thousand years old were upended as Pope John XXIII and the world’s bishops invited renewal and refreshment. The Sisters of Divine Compassion, along with most American congregations of women religious, responded to the invitation to study the signs of the times. And just as they were earlier in the century, congregational ministries were shaped by looking into the faces of men, women and children: Mexican migrants, the rural poor, people hungry for spiritual renewal, the socially disenfranchised, and people whose needs were not being met by other institutions. Since the founding of the congregation in 1886, the Sisters of the Divine Compassion have invited women and men to participate in their mission, their spirituality and their ministries.

For more information on the Sisters of the Divine Compassion and their ministries, please see www.divinecompassion.org.