DePaul University - Depaulian Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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frontier town climb- ing rapidly out of the prairies of llli-i nois. ln the vast un- cultivated stretches on Chicago's north- side, marked with rich truck gardens and patches of growing corn, Father Smith bought a tract of land at Webster and Sheffield Avenues for fifteen thou- sand dollars, most of which he bor- rowed from the Vincentian seminary at Ferryville, Missouri. Father Smith's Farm they called it, the five-acre plot that formed the origi- nal campus of DePaul. lt was on this property that the cornerstone of the first church was laid on November l, l875. The first building was really a combination church, school, and rec- tory. Some twenty years later Father Smith saw the development of his plans for a larger parish church: the cornerstone of the present University Church of St. Vincent de Paul was laid on May l9, l895. Unfortunately, the first Mass cele- brated in the new structure was the requi- em for its pas- tor on Septem- ber 29, l89f5. Father Smith had died five days before in St. loseph's Hospital. About this time, Archbishop Feehan suggested to the Vincentian provincial that the Vincentian Fathers open a college for men in Chicago. To raise money, the Vincentian houses of the western province were taxed, and to provide accommodations, the old church building was remodeled. The roof was removed and a third floor, to be used as an auditorium, was added. The former church on the second floor was divided into classrooms. Here, on the northeast corner of Webster and Osgood Cnow Kenmorel, St. Vincent's college bravely opened its doors on September 5, l898, with a student body of seventy-two and a faculty of ten. Archbishop Feehan, who had re- quested and encouraged the founding of the new College, became its first Chancellor. His successors have been the succeeding Archbishops of Chi- cago-Archbishop Quigley, Cardinal Mundelein, and Cardinal Stritch. Without the courage and hard work of its Vincentian faculty the young Col- lege could hardly have survived. The minutes of the faculty meetings fairly bristle with difficulties that almost over- whelmed the struggling institution. The low state of revenue was a phrase repeated with I embarrassing fre- i i guence: Someone re- i marked that the chalk supply was exhausted. 4 Father Park said that he had a box of chalk, but he hoarded it up like anthracite coal, owing - 5 to the low state of rev- . . enue . . . Father Molloy was called to account for not writing to Benjamin Mehyers parents. He re- plied that owing to the low state of revenue he could not procure paper or stamps from the Procuratorf' Nevertheless, under the Very Bev. Peter V. Byrne, C.M., the first president, the young College grew. The faculty home for the priests was begun in 1904. ln l906 the old College building was torn down and the following year was replaced by the building which today serves the needs of DePaul University Academy. ln 1997 also, the Lyceum Cnow the Administration Building! and the sumptuous College Theatre Cnow the Auditoriumj were completed. Both were heralded in the press of the day. A veritable revelation . . . simply stag- gering was the Chicago Inter-Oceans description of the new The- atre. But the dar- ing of Father

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,,...1 Y r.he story of DePaul's first fifty years in Chicago-an incredible story of hard work and heartaches, of successes won over desperate odds-is a story thoroughly consistent with the life of its great patron, St. Vincent de Paul. l-lad it once lost the zealous spirit of St. Vincent, DePaul University must long since have given up its fight to survive and make its special contribu- tion to the Chicago community. lf today, with its six colleges, DePaul vi if Wi ,M , y .,5,, 1 121 K 1 1 .IRQ ' sy '31 I 'ML Jliyjxkmtbf .lv ltv-Hail x - ft 'W Q , 1- . Tir' N- . T -1 ' f 1 . 1' '- T- '- - g -5 s...,f---,N ,K gm' r M , ' :It ii V sg, QVXQ.. .-'s ' , 4 ,' ' , e g , S 1 'r -- N - Urjmiv V y C- 16 is an impor- tant educa- tional and cultural farce in Chicago- land, it is largely be- cause it has breathed deeply of the French saint who said: Let us love God, but let it be at the expense of our arms and in the sweat of our brows. ln the first half of the seventeenth century St. Vincent, who is celebrated in Church history for his development of formal educational requirements for aspiring priests, founded in turbulent Paris a religious community of men under the title of Congregation of the Mission for the purpose of serving the spiritual needs of the poor French peas- ants. ln the United States the followers of St. Vincent are referred to as the Vincentian Fathers. lt is the priests of this religious community who have es- tablished and still conduct DePaul Uni- versity. First of the Vincentians to settle in Chicago was the Rev. Edward M. Smith, C.M. He came in August, l875. What Father Smith saw in that summer of '75, four years after the Chicago fire, was a growing, brawling, dynamic

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Byrne and his small staff was not con- fined to an ambitious building pro- gram. Begretting the small size and the rigidly set curricula of the contempo- rary Catholic liberal arts colleges. Father Byrne and his faculty resolved to establish a new Catholic university whose distinctive mark would be that for the first time in any Catholic college in the United States a modified elective system would be in operation. Early in December, 1907, the name DePaul University was unanimously agreed upon as most suitable for the new University, and the articles of the charter were carefully prepared. Be- fore the month was out, the formal docu- ment certifying that the said DePaul University is a legally organized Cor- poration under the laws of this State was signed and sealed by lames A. Bose, Secretary of State on December 24, l907, and DePaul became the first Catholic university in the State of llli- nois. An important paragraph in the ar- ticles of incorporation reads as follows: No test or particular religious profes- sion shall ever be held as a reguisite for admission to said University, or to any department belonging thereto ,... or for election to any professorship, or any place of honor or emolument in said Corporation or any of its depart- ments. Throughout the years the Uni- L A . versity has I proudly ob- served the spirit as well as the letter of this paragraph. ln luly, l9l0, . the Very Bev. Francis Xavier T McCabe, C.lVf., 7 came to DePaul as president,! and under his 4 energetic and' eloguent lead- ership the Uni- T F versity embarked upon an important era of development. The ten-year ad- ministration of Father McCabe saw the establishment of the Colleges of Law and of Commerce and the School of Music. The groundwork laid during his tenure was an important factor in the rise of DePaul's enrollment from 1,400 in l920 to over 7,000 just a decade later. Another important factor was the ac- guisition of space in the downtown DePaul Building, erected in l928 at Lake Street and Garland Court. The seventeen-story Loop structure was ad- mirably located to serve day and evening students from all parts of Chi- cago and its suburbs.