El Paso's 1923 Catholic School with a Shadowed Bell Tower
1300 Hardaway St, El Paso, TX 79903
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Active private school campus. No visitor admission. Bell tower and campus not open for public tours.
Access
Limited Access
Paved school campus; bell tower not accessible to public
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1923 · Sisters of Loretto · Henry Trost Architecture · El Paso Catholic Education · Early 20th Century Education
In March 1922, Mother M. Praxedes Carty of the Sisters of Loretto purchased 19 acres of hilltop land in El Paso's Austin Terrace neighborhood. The site was considered an impractical choice — open desert, accessible only by streetcar — but Carty moved forward. Construction of the first school building began that fall. The cornerstone for the chapel was laid in March 1924.
The campus was designed by Henry C. Trost, the El Paso-based architect who shaped much of the city's early 20th-century built environment. Trost's work for the Sisters of Loretto produced a complex that combined Spanish Colonial Revival influences with the practical requirements of a boarding school. The full campus wasn't complete until the 1930s.
Loretto Academy opened on September 11, 1923 with 186 students, including 20 boarders. Mother Praxedes Carty remained associated with the school until her death in 1933. The school is now documented by the Sisters of Loretto Community and the Concordia Cemetery Association, which holds records of the nuns who served and died in El Paso during the academy's early decades.
Today, Loretto Academy serves students from pre-K3 through grade 12. The lower grades are coeducational; grades 6 through 12 are all-girls. The campus remains in the Austin Terrace neighborhood, its bell tower visible from surrounding streets.
Sources
The bell tower at Loretto Academy has not rung for years. The mechanism has been out of service. But at night, when the tower is illuminated, observers standing outside the campus have reported seeing movement inside it — a shadow in the habit worn by the Sisters of Loretto.
The figure does not behave like the building's other animal inhabitants. El Paso evenings bring bats and birds into towers; their movement has a characteristic randomness. What has been described at Loretto's tower is different: a deliberate pacing, a shape with the dimensions and posture of a person in religious dress.
The Shadowlands submission identifies the figure as 'the spirit or energy of a much beloved sister who taught at this academy for many years and died of an illness, which kept her from continuing her duties at Loretto Academy.' That description is notable for its specificity — and the submission goes on to state that the sister's existence 'is well documented by the Concordia Cemetery Association, as well as her personal information and final resting place.' Mother Praxedes Carty, who founded the school and died in 1933, is one possible figure; the records of other sisters who taught and died on campus exist in institutional archives.
Independent sources — El Paso news outlets and local radio stations covering Halloween lore — consistently describe the same visual phenomenon: movement in the illuminated tower, figure in a habit, after dark. Students and staff have also reported being pinched with no one nearby, hearing whispers, and a persistent feeling of being observed on the grounds.
Loretto Academy has not confirmed or commented publicly on the reports. The school continues to operate, and the tower continues to stand.
Notable Entities
Loretto Academy is an active private school for pre-K through grade 12. The campus and bell tower are not open to the public. The tower — the reported site of the shadow figure — is visible from the street. Do not enter the campus.
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