Ground for the  St. Scholastica Convent was broken Dec. 18, 1923. The cornerstone was laid March 3, 1924. The building was completed in the spring of 1929 at a cost of $225,000. A new high school building was constructed in 1958 and valued at $1.8 million. St. Scholastica Convent was founded a Shoal Creek in 1879 but the Bendictine Sisters moved the motherhouse to Fort Smith in 1925 and moved the school that they ran to the city the year before. Until 1944, grade school students, both boarding and day, attended the academy along with high school girls. The school was closed in 1958 because of declining enrollments. St. Scholastica Convent under went a name change to St. Scholastica Monastery in 1986.