Our History
How it started
George McCann Memorial Catholic School was founded in 1924, consisting of four classrooms and a very modest principal’s office. A convent was soon built to house the teaching staff, the Sisters of Notre Dame. Because of the persistent appeal for sisters made by Father George Doyle to leaders of the Immaculate Heart Community in Hollywood, four schools in the Los Angeles area each released a sister to work at George McCann School. Our school received a “second chance,” was able to remain open, and it flourished. The Immaculate Heart Sisters faithfully served George McCann Memorial Catholic School until June, 1978. In 1978, two of the Sisters were killed in an automobile accident; this resulted in the Notre Dame Sisters leaving the area.
Mr. and Mrs. George McCann, immigrants of Irish descent, were married in 1870, a marriage witnessed by Father Dade. By 1886, the McCann’s had lost five children in various stages of infancy through heartbreaking circumstances of epidemic. After the death of George McCann himself, Mrs. McCann established a living memorial to her husband, offering the bulk of his estate to the parish, for the establishment of an educational institution that now bears his name.
The first parish-sponsored school at this location was the Academy of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was opened and directed by the Reverend Daniel F. Dade in 1861 and flourished until Father Dade’s retirement in 1872.