About Us

Our History

In the year 1923, the Dominican Sisters purchased from Joseph Warner an estate of approximately 91 acres located at 4210 Harding Pike. This included the family home, the “White House,” designed by architect George C. Norton in 1912 which is now on the National Register of Historic Buildings.
 
The Sisters, dedicated and committed to teaching, saw a need for a Catholic elementary school in west Nashville and in 1936 opened the doors of Overbrook School, now Overbrook Catholic School, with an enrollment of nine students and a faculty of five sisters. Classes were held in the main house, which currently serves as administrative offices for The Dominican Campus. A rapid increase of the student body to 21 by the spring of 1937 indicated acceptance and certain permanency for the school.
        
In 1937, a kindergarten was begun, and in 1943 a nursery school was added. Since Overbrook Catholic School was one of the few elementary schools in the area which offered preschool, high enrollment in 1944 necessitated moving the kindergarten to the remodeled carriage house behind the main house. An addition was built for the nursery school and cafeteria. In 1945 and in 1948, two other classrooms were added to the White House. During these years, the eight elementary grades shared four classrooms.
        
As enrollment continued to grow, the need for expanded facilities became critical. In 1961, the new building housing Overbrook Catholic School was dedicated. It included individual classrooms for each grade, kindergarten through eighth grade, a library, small office space, and small gymnasium. In 1970, a larger and more adequate library was added in honor of Sister Anastasia Basehart, O.P.
 
In the summer of 1983, OCS again expanded its building. Included in the expansion and remodeling project were:  improved office space, a much larger library, a regulation-size gymnasium, an audio-visual room, a science lab (former sixth-grade classroom), and a music and art room (former gymnasium). In 1986 two classrooms were built to provide a three-year-old and four-year old class. A seventh- and eighth-grade classroom wing was added in 1989. In March 1998, four classrooms were added to the middle school wing. In the summers of 2013 and 2014 the gym lobby, main lobby, and administrative offices were renovated along with a new front façade and lawn addition.
 
A farm was begun in 2017. Structures were built to house chickens, sheep, and bunnies. Raised garden beds were constructed so students could plant vegetables, herbs, and flowers. During the summer of 2022, the old farm was taken down, the area graded, a new barn constructed, and an outdoor learning pavilion built. New garden beds were purchased.
 
Following two years of strategic planning and studying the “junior high question,” it was announced in August of 2021 that Overbrook Catholic School would become a Pre-K (three-year-old) through sixth-grade co-ed school and St. Cecilia Academy would become a seventh- through twelfth-grade all-girls school. The move occurred in the summer of 2022. At this time, one extra classroom was renovated to serve as a second P-3 classroom. Another classroom was turned into two offices, two tutoring rooms, a conference room, and a spirit wear store.

With an influx of Nashvillians and a desire to further clarify the school's Catholic identity, it was announced in 2023 that Overbrook School would be re-named Overbrook Catholic School.
 
Today the faculty consists of 8 sisters and 39 lay teachers. Rich, indeed, is the heritage of Overbrook Catholic School in the 280 students presently enrolled and the more than 3,000 alumni living in various parts of the world.
4210 Harding Pike Nashville, Tennessee 37205
Phone: (615) 292–5134 Fax: (615) 783–0560