The roof is pierced by wall dormers featuring three-part round-arch windows topped by gablets.

String courses separate the floors, and the window bays of the main (north-facing) facade are roughly grouped in threes.

The main entrance is set in a 1916 brick stair tower at the northwestern end of the building.

[2] Biddeford's textile mills saw an influx of both Irish and French Canadian migrants in the mid-19th century, resulting in the establishment first of the predominantly Irish Roman Catholic parish of St. Mary's, and then in 1870 of the establishment of St. Joseph's, which catered primarily to the French Canadian Catholic population.

Parochial education first began in the basement of the St. Joseph's church, and the present school was built in 1888, to a design by Dr. Ferdinand Bernier, a parishioner.