Academy of the Holy Angels - Angelus Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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THE 1932 ANCELMS B NORTH VIEW THE history of our Academy takes us back to the feast of Holy Angels, October 2. 1877. when Mother Agnes Williams opened the mission at the little “White Convent.” near the old Immaculate Conception Church. Mother St. John Ireland was the first Superior and Directress. She continued in that capacity until her death in 1897. After several changes in residence, the sisters secured the Bassett property on Fourth Street and Sixth Avenue North. It was a large brick structure, with beautiful landscaped grounds, elevated several feet above the street by a stone terrace. This is the Holy Angels we all remember. It was a boarding and day school for girls from the first grade through high school, offering as electives, music, sewing and art. For over thirty years it was the outstanding Catholic high school for girls in our city. It attained an honorable educational reputation, and exercised a religious and cultural influence that has not died. Many pupils of the old school have lived to rejoice in the new and glorious offspring of their Alma Mater. They are a group of noble, ideal women, active and zealous in all movements that stand for progress in Church and State, but especially in those projects that make for the protection and guidance of the adolescent girl, or the betterment of Christian womanhood. [ 10]

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THE 1932 ANGELUS ACADEMY OF HOLY ANGELS—NICOLLET FRONT VIEW On First Seeing Holy Angels HOW gloriously it stands! A vision splendid! The dream of years crystallized in salient, stalwart walls. A monument of zeal abiding, of faith enduring. Out where the city ends, alone, aloof, majestic, lifting its Gothic spire and gleaming cross heavenwards to smiling skies. Out where the country begins, on primal plain of God's entcmpled fields, nor dust, nor smoke, nor traffic hum disturb the student mind. Out where the heavens meet earth, with healing sun. and changeful skies, and flare of moon and stars. Out where a million birds at dawn trill matin hymns to God. and chant hosannas to the new-born day. Out where a cherub glides at eve. with taper bright, and tips the twinkling stars, as gently fades the day. Out where the King of Kings has found a new Home, a Tabernacle, where stands a choir of angels to bear our prayers to God. f 9]

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Till 1932 ANCELUS A SECTION OP MAIN CORRIDOR As time advanced, the Academy quarters became inadequate, and a new foundation. St. Margaret s Academy, was opened in September. 1907. From that time. Holy Angels retained the grade school only. Gradually the environment of the school, once the elite section of the city, deteriorated, and soon became undesirable. In June. 1928. the doors were closed to await a new Holy Angels. From then until 1931, Holy Angels did not exist. But it was always the hope, and the dream of Mother Seraphine Ireland, and of the community, that a new and greater academy be built. Eventually the urgent demands of the Catholic community for a new school became so emphasized that the late Archbishop Dowling pleaded with Mother Clara to lose no time in beginning this important work. True to her promise, and greatly aided by Mother Grace Aurelia, the grounds were broken on this twenty-acre plot late in the summer of 1930. On September IS. 1931, the grand new Academy opened its doors to welcome the pioneer students. The oncoming depression greatly affected the enrollment, and many who had applied during the summer months were forced to send regrets. One hundred and seven pupils registered on opening day. The enrollment increased until it reached one hundred eighty-two. C M )