The school was named after Father Père-Philippe-Lamarche, a Catholicclergyman who moved to Toronto in 1887 and founded the city's first predominantly French school.[1]
The new school board assumed control of Monseigneur-de-Charbonnel, which remained Toronto's only French first language separate secondary school until 2012, when the school board opened École secondaire catholique Saint-Frère-André in the western portion of Toronto. Prior to the opening of ESC Père-Philippe-Lamarche, the school board did not operate a secondary school in Scarborough, the easternmost district of Toronto.
In April 2011, Conseil scolaire Catholique du Centre-sud purchased property on Eglinton Avenue East from the Toronto Catholic District School Board. The 1.922 hectares (4.75 acres) property was a vacant lot, designated as "Site 19" by TCDSB and was formerly reserved for future use.[2]Conseil scolaire Catholique du Centre-sud began building a new secondary school on the property in 2015.[3]
^The City of Scarborough was formally dissolved in 1998, when it was amalgamated with the other lower-tier municipalities of Metropolitan Toronto to form the single-tier City of Toronto government.