Brother Anthony Joseph came to the St. James Trade School from Syracuse, N.Y., in 1967 to join the Franciscan Brothers in running the school. The Springfield school on the northeast side closed in 1972 following a 42-year run, after which the Brothers opened Brother James Court in 1975 to house and care for developmentally disabled men. Despite his 43 years on the grounds, Brother Anthony often uncovers new stories of how the missions of the Brothers have touched the lives of many local men.

Last year, a group of trade school alumni met at Brother James Court and toured the grounds with Brother Anthony. One alumnus asked to see the garage where auto tech was taught from the 1940s to 1972. There, a camera-ready member of the 1959 basketball team marched to a brick wall and pointed high above their heads. Looking up, Brother Anthony saw recorded in chalk the scores from the little school’s lone district championship season 50 years prior. “I discovered a footnote that shows how much something can mean to a person many years later,” Brother Anthony says.

The story is included in a new book that celebrates the 35th anniversary of Brother James Court and the 80th anniversary of St. James Trade School. The book, compiled by Brother Anthony, author, and Phil Shadid, co-author, was released by Arcadia Publishing last week as part of its Images of America series and will enjoy a public unveiling at the 16th annual BJC Benefit Auction and Dinner on Saturday, April 10.

The St. James Trade School traces its origins to Germany, where the Motherhouse of the Franciscan Brothers of the Holy Cross stands on a hillside. Ten German brothers arrived in Springfield in 1928 to operate the Hospital Sisters’ farm and dairy operations. When Springfield’s bishop donated lumber, a monastery and other buildings were built on the 200-acre property and the brothers were ready to open their trade school in 1930, welcoming 10 orphans from Alton Children’s Home as their first students. The brothers taught trades like shoemaking, metals, woodworking, baking, dairy farming, and meat cutting for high school age boys, offering a trade certificate. They supplemented the program with a complete high school curriculum starting in 1944. Graduating classes ranged in size from four to the mid-twenties. Brother Anthony estimates 1,200 young men came through the school’s doors.

In the 1960s, the Franciscan brothers saw the writing on the wall — the small school with dwindling enrollment simply could not afford to stay open. “We looked at the needs of the community and decided to go back to our roots of caring for the