Founded on February 17, 1917, by Archbishop Henry McNicholas, Nativity of our Lord Parish was created by combining parts of Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Norwood and St. John the Evangelist Parish in Deer Park. Fr. William Egan was appointed as the first pastor. The present church, built of Indiana limestone, was constructed during the tenure of Fr. Henry Imbus, the fourth pastor of Nativity. Construction began on June 13, 1967, and it was dedicated on May 18, 1969, by Archbishop Karl J. Alter, with some of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in mind. Prior to its construction, the church was located in what is now the parish's gym.
On the south wall, a plaque listing the names of Nativity parishioners who served in World War II can be found, along with a Covenant entered into by Nativity Parish and All Saints Episcopal Church on September 7, 1977, while Fr. Joseph Allison was pastor. On the north wall, next to the entrance, there is a plaque in honor of Fr. Jerome Bartel, in whose memory the church was dedicated. The left wall of the St. Joseph shrine contains a plaque honoring four parishioners who died during the conflict in Vietnam.
Nativity School opened in 1921 and was staffed by the Ursulines of Cincinnati and later by the Sisters of Mercy. The school expanded in 1928 and again in 1952. In 2001, Nativity began to develop a Master Plan to prepare for its future in Pleasant Ridge, which included renovations to buildings and grounds, such as the church, the school library, and construction of St. Sebastian Hall for a gym. For over 90 years Nativity School has offered an education second to none to families on Cincinnati’s east side.
Over a year ago Nativity participated in a study related to a security grant we were trying to obtain. To our surprise, we failed the study miserably. It obviously isn’t good news to fail a study but for this purpose, it made us aware of issues we weren’t previously aware of and made us even more desirable for the grant! Unfortunately, after a few months, we found out that we were not the final recipient of the grant and would not receive funding to address these issues.
Even without the grant we knew that we needed to take action in resolving the most important security issues, namely replacing locks and cameras. Thanks to our current annual fund, we were able to secure funding to address both of those matters! During the week of June 2nd all locks were changed on the school, gym, and Nativity Church (all places students visit regularly).
What we have learned through this process is that many keys have been given out over the years with no documentation of who has them, which poses a high risk to the safety of our students and teachers. Now that all of the locks have been changed, we are able to have more control over access to our buildings with the use of the card readers we have had installed over the past few years.
If you are a current volunteer with a key to the Nativity campus and will now need an access card for the card reader, we ask that you please click the button below and complete a request form:
Request an Access Card.
We would like to thank all of those who have donated already to the annual fund to address these issues and are very excited to be able to have a more secure facility when our students return in August!
May 2024 Update: As of May 15th, the contributions to the 2023-2024 Annual Fund campaign amount to $73,269.00 We would like to offer a very heartfelt thank you to the 104 families that have contributed to this year's campaign. If you haven't contributed, there is still time. We are so close to our $100,000 goal for this year! No amount is too small, and all you have to do is click this link to make your contribution now: Nativity Annual Fund
There is still plenty of time to contribute if you haven't done so already. As a reminder, we hope to purchase a new electric partition system for the STEAM lab, make updates to the school's security system, purchase more electronic key readers for the school doors along with re-keying the exterior school doors. Additionally, we intend to allocate funds to the Caring Place, the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the tuition assistance fund for families in need. Finally, we hope to purchase new priest vestments for Christmas and Easter liturgies.
Nativity Development Committee
To contact Nativtiy's Pastoral Council please email:
[email protected]
Ted Scherpenberg
Jim Robinson
Angie Hartman
Justin Uihlein
Joe Naberhaus
Ted Renneker
Brad Resch