Immaculate Conception School, dwindling in enrollment, will be sold and demolished to make way for the “Georgia Plaza Plan” development in downtown Atlanta.

The announcement of the closing of the school and its replacement by a School of Religion was announced Sunday to parishioners in letters from Archbishop Hallinan and Father Arthur Murray O.F.M., pastor.

The school will close at the end of this year’s term.

The city, county and state will pay for the land taken under the plan which will not affect the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception or its rectory.

“Our lawyers and our property commission have studied every aspect of the plan,” the archbishop said. “Full details will be announced as soon as the plans are completed. You can rest assured that the sum paid to the parish will pay off the entire parish debt, provide all necessary renovations, will create a surplus at the parish and most important of all will provide a continuing Catholic education for all the children of the parish.

“The new school, planned to teach religion in the most modern way, will be the vital new center for parish children. Plans are now being made to provide sisters and determine the exact set-up and location of the classrooms. These facts will be announced to parishioners as soon as completed,” the archbishop said.

The archbishop said the chief purpose of his letter was to assure parishioners that the present service of the priest will be continued; that all parish children will be able to attend the new school of religion; and that the parish will benefit from the compensation of the sale of the land.

Archbishop Hallinan said the decision to take the land and develop it was a governmental action. “Due to the process of eminent domain, this development was made by the city, county and state which entered into negotiations with responsible persons in the church,” he said.

Father Arthur said the school, even after Sacred Heart School closed, had only 157 pupils. He said only 52 of the pupils were from the parish and the teaching staff had to be reduced. The pastor said, “In a short time, there would have existed a school building without pupils.”

The pastor said, “From all of this it follows that the complex reality of present-day conditions has affected the parochial plant now stranded in the downtown area and so many elements and forces are impelling us to close our beloved school.

“Our own Sisters of Mercy ever deeply concerned for the spiritual care of young children and who have been associated with the Shrine for nearly 100 years feel as we do that this is not a final break in their relationship with our parish, but merely a period of transition.”

“Being conscious of our obligation of providing Catholic training for our children and realizing the length of time it might take to relocate the school, there will be established a School of Religion at the Shrine as a temporary measure and at the same time a very vital one so that none of our children will be deprived of the essentials of our Catholic faith,” the priest said.