Carroll College - Hilltopper Yearbook (Helena, MT)

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den of the domestic and culinary work of the school, the plan could not have been carried to completion. The institution was now capable of caring for both boarders and day-scholars, and the new school placed under the direction of the Reverend Joseph M. Venus as first principal. The name was changed from St. Aloysius School to St. Aloysius Institute and was opened for grammar school and first year high school work on September 8, 190G. In 1907, Professor Charles A. Scullon was appointed Prefect of Discipline and Director of School Activities. Father Venus retired to parochial work in 1909 and was succeeded by the Reverend Joseph C. Willging. The growth of St. Aloysius Institute was rapid, and the need of more room to accommodate the students was becoming more acute. The plan of the Bishop was now to create a college and junior seminary combined. The fifty-acre tract to the north of the city, known as Capitol Hill, was regarded as a suitable site for a larger institution. Half of this tract was owned by the family of former Governor Hauser; the other half, conjointly by the Great Northern Railway and Mr. George Bertine of New York City. With the assistance and generosity of the Hauser family, the Bertine Estate, Mr. Thomas Marlow, then the agent for the Bertine Estate, and Mr. James J. Hill of the Great Northern Railway, the property was transferred to the College. Mrs. A. P. Thatcher, the daughter of Governor Hauser, generously donated her interest in the property. BISHOP CARROLL BREAKING SOD ON HILLTOP Page twenty-right

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These two things would afford much satisfaction to my apostolic life. And I think that, with prayer, patience, and work, these things will come.” Can we doubt that the “prayer, patience, and work” of the saintly Bishop Brondel have found their fruition in MOUNT ST. CHARLES COLLEGE, which is the ideal for which he strove and one of the ends of his apostolic labors? Bishop Brondel did not live to see a Catholic college in Helena; but the realization of his hopes was effected by this successor. Bishop Carroll, who. fitted by training and ability, was enabled to establish the College under the supervision of the diocesan clergy. The immediate predecessor of Mount St. Charles College was St. Aloysius Institute on Catholic Hill. St. Aloysius School, Helena’s first Catholic school for boys, and St. Vincent’s Academy, its first Catholic school for girls, were opened at the same time, in the beginning of January, 1870. Both buildings were situated on the east side of Ewing Street, across from the old frame church, which had been built in 1866; they occupied the site of the present St. Vincent’s Academy. The building used by the boys was the old printing establishment of The Rocky Mountain Gazette the predecessor of the Helena Independent. The Jesuit Fathers had bought the building in the winter of 1867-68, and lived in it until the arrival of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth in October. 1869 It was then given to the Sisters, who lived in it for a few months, until they moved into the original St. Vincent’s Academy, their first school for girls. This latter was a two-story frame building of twelve rooms, and from the beginning was open to both boarders and day-scholars. The old Gazette building was fitted up as a day-school for boys. It was a typical early-day structure, built partly from weatherboards and partly from pine slabs standing upright. One-half was roofed with boards and the other half with earth or clay; rough planks made the floor. Later the old Gazette building was moved and replaced by a new frame structure of larger dimensions, and this served as the boys’ school until the increasing attendance at the Academy necessitated its use for the girls. Subsequently we find the boys attending classes in the old frame church, which had been moved back to give way to the second Church of the Sacred Hearts. When in the spring of 1876, the brick church was ready, the old church and the sacristy of the new church were used as class rooms for the boys. This condition still persevered at the arrival of Bishop Brondel in 1883 and continued until 1890, when the old church was torn down to make room for St. Aloysius Hall, which served as a school for boys and as a parish hall. By 1906 there was enough demand for a boarding school for boys to justify Bishop Carroll in planning residence quarters. Without the assistance of Sister Cornelia of St. John’s Hospital, who generously took upon herself and her community the bur- Paye t went y-sei'Cii

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Plans were immediately made for the erection of the new building. Fortunately, Providence favored the Bishop in his undertaking. On May 10, 1893, Mr. James Twohy of Butte, the owner of extensive mining claims throughout the state, made a will, in which he bequeathed to Bishop Brondel the “Burke and Balaklava lodes situated northwest of Meader-ville and adjacent the Modoc Mine, Silver Bow County, Butte.” A few months later Mr. Twohy died, and in the settlement of the estate, the property, later known as the Butte and Balaklava Mine, passed into the hands of Bishop Brondel, who at his death left it to his successor. Bishop Car-roll later sold the property, and from the proceeds was enabled to begin the new college. The site having been so happily secured, the services of Mr. A. O. Von Herbulis of Washington, D. C.. who had previously designed the St. Helena Cathedral and the St. Helena School, were secured as architect for the new building. The new institution was to be five stories high with a frontage of 180 feet and a depth of fifty-five feet. On June 16, 1909, in the presence of the little student body of St. Aloysius Institute, the friends of the new and the old institutions, and the priests of the city, ground was broken for the new building. Early that same fall, on September 27, 1909, the Honorable William Howard Taft, President of the United States, laid the cornerstone of the College. After the ceremony, the President said in part: ‘‘It gives me great pleasure to participate in the laying of cornerstones of institutions of learning, whether of Church or State. We are liberal enough in this country to be willing to help along educational work of all denominations. The College you are building here will be a blessing to Helena and to the whole State of Montana. The only trouble is, we have not institutions enough of this kind in the United States. “Though not of your faith. I cannot but appreciate the good work your Church is doing in this country. I am intimately acquainted with many members of the hierarchy, and I must say that our relations have always been most pleasant. I feel at home among them. I assure you. Bishop, I regard it as an honor and a pleasure both to have made your acquaintance and to have been asked to take part in the laying of the conerstone of your college. I wish you Godspeed in the completion of the institution.” On April 16, 1910, the college structure on Capitol Hill was already a story and a half high. The work was progressing rapidly through the efforts of a corps of men employed by Mr. Peter Jungers, sub-contractor under Mr. Charles T. Gunn of Hamlin and Gunn. Already the structure 1‘agc 1 went g-nine