Boston College - Sub Turri Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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a section of real estate on Leverett Street which provoked such opposition from the civic minded neighbors when the purpose of the land was publicized, that the estate was turned back to the city. However in 1857 the Honorable Alexander H.Rice, Mayor of Boston, exerted his influential assistance for the Jesuit Fathers when in August of the same year the present site of Boston College High School was acqviired for the erection of a church and school, a concrete expression of unflinching constancy. With the completion of the buildings some three years later the Church was formally opened while the structiu-e intended for a college was vised to overcome any further frustration of progress by a lack of professors. The school opened as a house of studies for young Jesuits, later to become mem- bers of the collegiate faculty. At this time the surge of religious intolerance aroused the ire of many Boston residents when public scandals in school curricula were sustained by the legal interpretations of civil jurists. After Father Bernadin Wigit, S.J., had sought financial assistance and cooperation from the pulpit, Michael Norton with his adamant Irish perseverance resorted to those methods successfully employed by his native country against similar opposition by England when he grouped together seventeen students for private tutorship. The outbreak of the Civil War delayed for a time the final events in the founding of Boston College which were chro nicled at its cessation. In April of 1863, the State Legislature granted a charter to the college empowering her to confer all degrees, excepting those of the medical profession alone, a restriction later removed. Thus in the following year the Boston College of today ofiicially opened with an enrollment of twenty-two students. Meanwhile, advancing age, augmented by tireless activity forced Father McElroy to retire in favor of Reverend John Bapst, S. J., the new rector and Reverend Robert Fulton, S.J., the first dean of the College. The first graduating class in 1877 was composed of twelve students hold- ing Bachelor of Arts and one bearing the distinction of a Master of the Arts. Graduation with the sanction of a degree had been prevented due to the lack of philosophy professors which caused such an adjustment of the curricula that for a time only classes in rhetoric and the classics were held. Father Bapst was President until 1869 when he was succeeded by the Rev. W. Brady, S.J., who remained at the college only a year, leaving to assume a more important ofiice in the government of the Society of Jesus. [12]

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He was followed by the Reverend Robert Fulton, S.J. who, because of his literary attainments and forceful energy is considered by many, as the founder of the college. In the year 1888 the increased enrollment of students necessitated ex- pansion; at the cost of a quarter of a million dollars a new addition was built which doubled the classroom accommodation. The cares and worries of oflBce had taken their toll from Father Fulton and one year later, he was forced to withdraw. He had been the most distinguished president of the college thus far; and his memory is immortalized to this day in one of the most popidar and successful extra-ciu-ricular student activities, the Fulton Debating Society. Father Fulton was succeeded by the Reverend Edward I. Devitt, S.J., who was appointed to complete the work begun by his predecessor in office. In 1894 he was succeeded by the Reverend Timothy Brosnahan, S.J., famed for his refined refutation of Charles W. Eliot ' s theory of electivism directlj attacking scholastic education in general and Boston College in particular. Expansion was again imperative. The addition of another year in philos- ophy made by the Reverend W. Read Mvillen, S.J., sviccessor to Father Brosnahan, increased the necessity of separating the high school from the college. To Father Gasson, S.J., who may justly be considered the second founder of Boston College, special tribute must be given for his vision of con- ceiving the present college. The first step in the realization of his wish was taken on December, 1897 when the trustees of the college acquired the present site of University Heights. To erect buildings that would harmonize with the natiu-al beauty of the site Father Gasson announced competitive bidding for plans of the buildings, which was entered into by a dozen of the most prominent architectural firms of the East. The board of judges awarded the contract to the firm of Maginnis and Walsh who strictly adhered to the English Collegiate Gothic design. The first sod was turned by Father Gasson on June 1909 and on March the twenty- eighth 1913 the new college was formally opened by the Rector in the pres- ence of Mayor Hubbard and other dignitaries. Following a policy of rotation in office Father Gasson was succeeded by Rev. Charles W. Lyons. Under his direction Saint Mary ' s Hall, the resi- dence for Jesuit members of the faculty was constructed. With the help of Father Matthew L. Fortier, S.J., a faculty member , Father Lyons under- [14]