As early as 1841 Bishop Bonnaud planned to start a Catholic High school in Bangalore. But this proposal took concrete shape only in 1854 when the priests of the Missions Etrangeres de Paris (MEP) bought a plot of land for a sum of Rs.1000/- at St. Johns Hill. Bangalore Fr. Bouteloup had a house constructed in 1854 at a cost of Rs.3000/- and this was named St. Joseph's Seminary. This house also contained an orphanage and a residential school.
The Madras University was established in 1858 and hence boarders could be admitted to prepare for the matriculation examination of the Madras University. Fr. Charbonnaux who was in-charge of the school made this entry in his diary; "We decided to open a school for European boys. As knowledge of English in necessary to our Indian pupils and that of Canarese to European boys we determined to build a wing and a kitchen adjoining the Seminary." This was the beginning of St. Joseph's College. In the nomenclature of the day, in European usage a college was what today we would call a high school and what we would call today a college would be termed University. By May 1865 a new house was built to take in the orphans and boarders of the school.
