This undated postcard, published by Gallagher’s Studio, shows the Good Shephard Church and School at 5901 Raleigh St. in West Duluth. The building was completed in 1959 and the first mass was celebrated on Christmas Eve, 65 years ago.

The caption on the back of the postcard reads:

Good Shepherd Church and School
Artist’s drawing of the proposed new Good Shepherd Church and School — West Duluth. Plans call for the start of building in 1957. A building fund is now being collected.

Good Shepherd’s congregation formed in 1914 and two years later a Lutheran church building on Grassy Point was purchased and rolled on logs to Raleigh Street. The Church of the Good Shepherd was incorporated in December 1916.

The original Church of the Good Shepherd, circa 1917. (Photo by Hugh McKenzie via the Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Kathryn A. Martin Library)

Church of the Good Shepherd, circa 1920. (Photo by Hugh McKenzie via the Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Kathryn A. Martin Library.)

The original building was demolished to make way for the modern building.

Raleigh Academy on Christmas Eve 2024. (Photo by Paul Lundgren)

Good Shepherd merged with St. James Catholic Church in 1997 and the building closed. It was the first of numerous churches shut down by the Catholic Diocese of Duluth due to a shortage of priests. Raleigh Edison Charter School took over the building and, after a remodeling, classes began in the fall of 1999. The school now goes by the name Raleigh Academy.