Ursuline Academy is a private, all-girls' Roman Catholic high school in Oakland, Missouri. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Louis.HistoryUrsuline Academy in St. Louis was founded by three Ursuline Sisters from Austria-Hungary and a young woman from Bavaria who was preparing to become a nun. They arrived in St. Louis on September 5, 1848, and on November 2, 1848, the women opened the school that would become known as Ursuline Academy located on Fifth Street, near the old French market. In 1850 a larger school building was needed, and the school moved to 12th and Russell Streets (today the site of St. Joseph’s Croatian Church).As the twentieth century dawned, the building on 12th Street was in need of major repairs and was no longer adequate for the kind of education the Sisters wanted to offer. Towards the close of 1914, a beautifully wooded 28-acre tract with a fine old colonial-style mansion was offered for sale near Oakland, Missouri. The Sisters purchased the property, and in the spring of 1915 the mansion was furnished and arranged for a school and the Sisters’ quarters. A high school was opened there in September 1915.In 1925, ground was broken for a new convent and academy. By August 1926, the present main building facing the pond, now known as Merici Hall, was ready for occupancy. In 1960, a west building, now known as Brescia Hall, was added. This expansion offered a new library, additional classroom space, and a new gymnasium.