Manhattan College - Manhattanite Yearbook (Riverdale, NY)

Page 18 text:

cessors, the nostalgic appreciation of the beauty that is today Manhattan. lt began away back in the fifties, al- most a century ago. The Brothers first established the Academy of the Holy lnfancy on Old Bloomingdale Road at l3lst Street. A sylvan grove near the banks of the American Rhinef' was the description. of old Manhattan at that time. WVhen the collegiate charter was granted by the State Board of Regents in 1863, the College was a modest four- story building amidst weeping willow trees, with a small hemicycle of driveway set in a wooden picket fence. The school faced East on the Old Bloomingdale Road. Grand Boulevard, now part of

Page 17 text:

in I 946 by Manhattaifs sons who completed their studies a short three decades ago. It is Htting today, when her sons have acquired and are acquiring positions of prominence, trust and responsibility, that We pause and review the scenes in which they carried on their academic prepara- tion. We shall ourselves soon be part of that great group, and in painting today's scenes and in reviewing those of yester- day, we are but handing down to our suc-

Page 19 text:

Broadway, was blasted out of the rock West of the College in the early seventies. Years brought the beginning of an in- cipient Quadrangle, the erection of the Church of the Annunciation on the Southeast corner of the property, an amazing rise in enrollment and the initia- tion of many a cherished tradition. Here it was that Professor Fitzsimmons in- augurated the first classical courses 5 here philosophy classes were held in Ciceron- ian Latin. Here Irish oratory and the beauties and sorrows of Erin were the topics for study and discussion. Here the future bright lights of the priesthood, of the law and of professional life were molded to those ideals that still stand as the objectives of the training given by the Christian Brothers.