With the educational needs of Frederick's girls gradually being met, McElroy's next task was to found an educational institution for boys in the town. In 1822, subscriptions were being taken and construction of the boys school had begun on East Second Street (in the eastern section of downtown Frederick) by August 7, 1828. It was completed the following year, and opened in 1829 as "St. John's Literary Institution". Occasionally known thereafter as "St. John's College", the school was an academic rival to Georgetown College, founded earlier in (1829) near Washington, D.C. by the first American Bishop John Carroll, the Archbishop of Baltimore. After several years of running St. John's in Frederick, Fr. McElroy was transferred to Boston in 1847; there he would use the skills he acquired in Frederick to establish the nationally known Boston College, and its preparatory institution, Boston College High School along with the Church of the Immaculate Conception, all "Jesuit" institutions.