Boston College - Sub Turri Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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J ke J-owet Ji ' iiLLciiiia . . . rSercnc and untitT ' fU ' ii . . . licininaleA llic jr eLaliti.

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HISTORY OF BOSTON COLLEGE A MILKSTONK has Ix-cn n-a(li (l. Ii was scvcnly-five years ago in 1868 thai pioneering Jesuit scholars, hy secur- ing a college charier from the State of Massacliusetts. poitileil liopeliillN loward lo(la . U l v( celehralc the (liatnoiiil Juhilee of a college not envisioned in the most Imo anl ho|)es or amiiilions of tlie founders. And like all iTicti. wiio from lime to time stop to take an account of their hooks, look o er liie past, and record the progress they have made, we halt and hold our lantern high so that the light it shcfls can reveal to us the early years already passed. But we must look farther hack than seventy-five years, for the real foundations of Boston College were laid hefore this time. It was when Catholicism was just organizing in a higolcd Boston that the first impetus was given to Catholic education. And in this impetus were implanted the seeds of vitality which were to grow into Boston College. At that time Bishop Cheverus. in imitation of bishops of antiquity, started a Cathedral School which he conducted himself in his own dwelling. The succeeding Bishop Fenwick continued the idea, and thus did a handful of Catholic young men imbibe the classics and philosophy when Catholics in Massachusetts were few. scattered, and for the most part, poor. Farseeing Bishop Fitzpatrick. in 1847. invited the Jesuits to make a foundation in Boston. The Church of St. Mary in the North End was assigned to them with the hope that they would establish a high school and college. The immediate fulfdlment of this ambition was restrained only by the scarcity of funds and the fewness of Jesuits. But the Jesuit superior in Boston. B . John McElroy, S.J.. was an extremely zeal- ous and remarkable man. for he entered the order as a brother, but became a priest when his exceptional talents refused to be suppressed and came to the surface. This man. to whom, as founder, we owe so much, lived not only a scholarly but also a most practical life for ninety-five years, and left Boston College as his greatest memorial. The year after his arrival in F3oston, Fr. McElroy purchased the Hancock school- house with the intention of beginning a college there. However, he was handi- -ap[)ed l)y a lack of professors and an unsatisfactory financial status. Four years later, he made another attempt when he bought the Otis schoolhouse on Lancaster Street, but again the dearth of faculty prevented any establishment from being made.

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IN SPITK OF lli.-M- luo .I.C.als. I ' r. M.KIroN [.roved ri ' Icrillcss. lor in anollicr four vcars lir iiiNCslcd in a lot on Leverelt St. wliicli v as known, oddly enough, as llie Jail Lands. Hul intolerant ne ighbors put up so niiieli O|)position thai jr. l(l ' ,lro uas forced to eaneel tli ' deal aTid turn the land i.aek to llie eitv. riiis fieree «a e of intolerance nevertheless seems to ha ( ' heen a lioonieraili;. for il aroused the spirit of lair-niinded citizens and enlisted their s r7ipathv. Foremost was the Hon. Alexander II. Rice, the then mayor of Boston and later governor of the State. All the puhlie and personal infhienee he possessed was exerted hv him to secure the land on Harrison Avemie where the High School and the (Church of the Immaculate Conception now stand. Despite opposition, his influence jjrevailed in 1857. and within a year the cornerstone of this oft-delaved cliurch and college was cemented into position. But temporarily, the new structure was used as a scholastic house of studies, for the ])rol)lem of professors was still a curh on the -ollege. The day for the actual incorporation was well in sight, however, and . strangely enough, it was the rampant bigotry of the city itself which once more promoted furtherance of Catholic Education. For the encroachments upon religion and the proselytizing suspected in the puhlie schools made them undesirable to Catholics. This infected condition of education came to a head in the celebrated Whall Case. wherein was revealed the punishment inflicted on a student of the public schools who refused to recite portions of the Holy Writ except according to the Catholic version. Suspended from llie school, and faced at the same time with truancy as a result of the Whall ( ase, those implicated were taken into hastily outfitted class- rooms h Vr. McElrov. In this manner came the first Catholic parochial school into Boston. There followed, to |)rovide for those of high school age, the Immaculate Conception SodalitV ' School. Paradoxically, it opened its classes in what had been a Masonic lodge room on Hanover St. This school was the immediate forerunner of Boston College, and, though not the college itself, it can be considered the larva in the metamorphosis of Boston College. Finally fruition came to the labors of Fr. McElroy. On March 31, 1863, a charter was issued to the trustees of Boston College by the Massachusetts legislature, empowering the college to grant all degrees accustomed to be granted in the Com- monwealth except medical degrees.