Early ventures in St. Joseph, Minnesota (1880-1890). Students and faculty of the first academy class in the Haarman Building (1880-1881) are identified as follows. Faculty upper row: Sisters 1. Flavia Pokowsky, 2. Magdelen Enste, 3. Elizabeth Will (who later became Sister Julia), 4. Bede Linnemann. Faculty - 2nd row: Sister Anotolia Langsford. Faculty - 3rd row: Sister Irminia Kretzer. Students - 2nd row: Anna Burrell, Cecilia Beck, S. Farrell, Katie Rovischer, Emma Otto, Aggie Zingerly, Rose Weiner, Carrie Capser, Iona Owens, Lilly Miller, Katherine Riesgraf, Anna Kapsner. Students - lower 3 rows: Antonette Jennings, Virgina Gerard (later Sister Anastasia), Lena Schlick, Anna Waschenberger, Mary Phillip, Ella Egan, Jennie Kennedy, Katie Loso, Aloysia Zingerly, Adela Jennings, Clara Pottgieser, Lorrina Maurin, Tillie Maurin, Lizzie Beck, Josie Kapser. Because St. Agnes Academy was not flourishing in St. Cloud, Mother Aloysia Bath and the community decided in 1879 to build a new boarding academy at St. Joseph. When the basement walls were nearly completed, the cold weather halted construction; lack of funds prevented more building for another 2 years. The next prioress, Mother Scholastica Kerst, closed the St. Agnes Academy in St. Cloud and rented the Haarman Building across from the church and convent in St. Joseph to open a select boarding academy, St. Joseph's Academy. The Haarman Building was rented for only one year. Because the school was so successful, the earlier plans for a new academy building were immediately resumed and Cecilia Hall was rapidly completed for use in 1882. When the building was blessed, St. Joseph's Academy was renamed St. Benedict's Academy (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives ; McDonald, pages 70-71, 99-100).
Schools in north-central Minnesota (1871-1909). New Munich began with a few small buildings built by two men, Burns and Sutton, in 1855. They also ran a small "wayside" inn for the stagecoach that ran north-south through this part of the county. The town gradually settled around the church built by the German Catholics. In 1879 three sisters came to New Munich to teach in the district school at the request of the pastor. The trustees and the people did not agree with this decision and hired a lay teacher. The pastor then opened a parochial school in the church basement, but attendance was very small and leaders of the antagonism made it almost impossible for the sisters to live there. Despite the set-backs, the sisters won the good will of the people so that the following year the school opened with over 100 children enrolled (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives, Olsenius, page 120; Jaakkola and Frericks, page 77).
Despite the fact that the new St. Benedict's Hospital boasted of a modern heating system, an operating room, two private rooms, wards, and a kitchen, only ten patients were received during the first two months. The sisters began to worry about their hospital project until a cyclone swept over St. Cloud and the neighboring towns killing 58 and injuring hundreds. It wrecked all in its wake but the hospital which became the center for rescue work. The sisters toiled for 48 hours before relief came from the Twin Cities and neighboring towns. The catastrophe broke down the prejudice against hospitals and, thereafter, St. Benedict's Hospital did not lack patients; at the close of the second year of service, the number of patients received reached 400. When over-crowded conditions forced the sisters to build a new hospital, St. Benedict's Hospital was converted to an academy of art and music (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives , McDonald, page 254).
By 1889 the increased patient rate at St. Benedict's Hospital forced the sisters to look for larger quarters. John Coates and Daniel H. Freeman offered the sisters a five-acre site on the east side of the Mississippi River near the reformatory. The following year, because they were assured that a bridge, road, and even a streetcar line would connect that site with St. Cloud proper, the sisters built a three-story, up-to-date hospital there. Upon Bishop Otto Zardetti's request, it was named St. Raphael's Hospital. For ten years they labored against odds to make this venture a success in spite of the fact that the transportation facilities never materialized. When it became obvious that the site was unsatisfactory, the sisters planned to build another St. Raphael's Hospital (II), this time back on Ninth Avenue next to the site of their first hospital, St. Benedict's Hosptial (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives, McDonald, pages 256-257).
Early years in St. Joseph, Minnesota (1863-1880). Students in Sister Stephen Schaaf's class of 1892 have been identified as follows: Top row: (Sister Stephen Schaaf), Anna Krahl, Bertha Walz, Christ Walz, George Warnert, Mike Nierengarten, Casper Benning, Frank Rau, Leroy Baloh, Mike Ziegelmeier; 2nd row: Teresa Walz, Lizzie Neis, Molly Roeder, Rose Orth, Anna Walz, Johanna Rau, Mary Mae Schloemer, ___ Burgmeier, Mary Notsch; 1st row: Frank Katzner, Joe Reber, Anton Walz, Joseph Meyer, Pius Ziegelmeier (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
St. Clotilde Music and Art Academy (1890-1906). When the sisters built a new hospital east of the Mississippi River, the former St. Benedict's Hospital was converted to an art/music academy for 40 students. The enrollment of this academy grew to 50. At the same time, the sisters opened a kindergarten in the academy for 26 three to nine-year olds; later that enrollment increased to 57. When a third hospital was built on Ninth Avenue next to the former St. Benedict's Hospital, St. Clotilde's Academy was closed and the building became a school of nursing (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
Failing in their hope to dispose of St. Raphael's Hospital (I) by a sale to the State that was then looking for a location for a women's reformatory, the sisters converted St. Raphael's Hospital (I) to a nursing home. St. Joseph's Home (rear view) served the elderly for 78 years (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives, McDonald, pages 261-262).
Exterior view of the Sacred Heart Church and rectory in Freeport with a photographic insert of Reverend Meinrad Seifermann,Order of Saint Benedict (OSB), pastor. The little hut on the right is a Corpus Christi Altar Station.
First 5O years of the College of Saint Benedict (CSB). At first the college shared the facilities of the academy in Cecilia and Gertrude Halls. Cecilia Hall, built in 1881, is described in the 1926 College Bulletin: "Five dining halls with service rooms occupy the basement floor, five reception rooms the first floor, seventeen music practice rooms and five teacher's studios the second, while the third was remodeled in 1924 into a residence hall with an infirmary area. The private rooms are furnished with vanity dressers, tables and settees; each has a large private wardrobe and hot and cold water. A trained nurse is at all times in charge of the perfectly equipped infirmary. A secluded cottage (infirmary/guest house) on the campus, also in charge of a trained nurse, is used in case of contagious illness." Gertrude Hall, built in 1898, is also lauded in the 1926 College Bulletin: "In the basement is the service room fitted with the most convenient shampooing apparatus, irons, electric attachements, etc.--also cloak rooms, locker rooms, a stationery store, a confectionery store, and a kitchenette fully equipped for the serving of light lunches or 'spreads.' On the first floor are administration offices and the chemical and physical laboratories. . . On the second floor is the botanical laboratory and classrooms, well-lighted and each furnished with a special library open to the use of the students. The third floor provides airy pleasant dormitories for those who do not wish to rent private rooms." However, many of the activities of the college centered in the two new buildings, Teresa Hall and Sacred Heart Chapel, which were as up-to-date as Benedicta Arts Center and Regina Hall seem to us now - perhaps more so. Teresa Hall was the height of luxury! It had a library on 1st floor, an auditorium/study hall on 2nd floor, a rotunda (residence area) on 3rd and 4th floors (where some rooms had private baths and every bedroom had hot and cold water) and a gymnasium on the ground floor. (Gable, OSB) The chapel inspired by new architecture, very moderate baroque with its Carrara statues and Sienna marble pillars from Italy (and majestic, granite pillars from Rockville, MN), was a perfect example of its baroque type -- Newman's favorite. However, the college faculty was concerned about the later interior decorating of the chapel. In 1958, members of the art department, Sisters Johanna Becker and Jacquelyn Dubay as art consultants, helped the community restore some of the chapel's original lightness which had seemed so right in the beginning. (Gable, OSB)
First 50 years of the College of Saint Benedict (CSB). For those who wish to study painting, china decorating, or crafts, the art studios offer special inspiration. Sun-flooded rooms with paneled ceilings, richly carved, a wide fire-place with hand-painted tiles, rare statuary, including pieces from Beuron--all contribute an atmosphere calculated to inspire the student with love for her work (College Bulletins).
First 50 years of the College of Saint Benedict (CSB). The College Bulletin of 1930 describes the library as follows: "A library of 16,700 volumes provides adequate supplementary reading for the departments of science, literature and the arts. . . Besides the main library, a magazine annex has been recently equipped in which there are bound volumes of the best magazines. At least fifty current magazines may be found on the desks in the reading room. The first purpose of the library is to meet the needs of the students of the various departments, but the utilitarian has not been allowed to exclude the aesthetic. The reading room is surrounded by low oak book cases and settees. A fire-place, decorated with hand-painted tiles, numerous sofa cushions, and statuary, contributes to the culture and comfort of the students who frequent the library."
First 50 years of the College of Saint Benedict (CSB) The performances Sister Dominica Borgerding directed would cram this hall and the two adjoining classrooms with seculars paying for tickets three Sundays in a row - from as far as the Twin Cities, Duluth and Milwaukee. She did not offer "milk for babes." Instead she challenged the Dramatics Club and the audiences with the "Merchant of Venice" (with a brilliant Shylock and a magnificent Portia) and with biblical plays of a Queen Esther and a Judith of Bethulia. Women took men's parts and managed very convincingly. If Shakespeare could make-do with men to take women's parts, Sister Dominica turned her women into men for their parts. The costumes were magnificent. They are still among the richest and most beautiful now in that amazing collection in the Benedicts Arts Center.
First 50 years of the College of Saint Benedict (CSB). Sister Olivia Egan entered St. Benedict's community in 1886, graduated from St. Benedict's Academy, taught in the Industrial School and then became librarian and teacher at the academy and the college. In the college, she served as librarian from 1916-1930. Because of her vital interest in the establishment of the college, Sister Mariella Gable cited her as one of its prime promoters.
View of the lobby of the Sherman Theater, St. Cloud, Minnesota. Liebenberg and Kaplan, Architects (1919-1969), were noted for designing more than 200 motion picture theatres in the Upper Midwest, many of the early ones featuring an art deco style.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Northwest Architectural Archives