Mount St Marys College - Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

Page 8 text:

E0 40 mam ages: uni C 1 On Sunday, June 17, 1929, several thousand friends of Mount St. Mary,s gathered to witness the formal groundbreaking and first commencement exercises of the college. The ceremonies were held on the new hilltop campus which replaced St. Maryis Academy as the official college campus Bishop John J. Cantwell officiated during the ceremony and addressed the ten graduates.

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An Explanation of the Designs by the Architect, Mark Daniels The site of the new Mount Saint Mary's College crowns the top of a spur of the Santa Monica Mountains which juts out into the broad valley of Boehme Canyon. The area comprises substantially thirty-six acres. The scheme of buildings is a series of groups surrounding patios, quadrangles and terraces, succeeding one another up the slope ofthe hill and culminating in the Chapel terrace, flanked on the east and west by the Residence Hall and Faculty Building. Tradition has all but dictated the adoption of a so-called Spanish type of architecture in which an effort has been made to introduce a combination of Gothic and Renaissance such as may be seen in the University of Salamanca and the Cathedral at Burgos. From their windows, lecture rooms, sleeping rooms and auditorium command a sweeping view over the sea, city and surrounding hills. It would be difficult to find a more alluring and at the same time inspiring view from any eminence within a reasonable distance of a great center of population. The quadrangles and patios are connected by a grand staircase, over which arched passage- ways afford intercommunication between buildings. This type of partie provides semi- enclosed cloisters and study patios, a feature to be found in few educational institutions. Soil and climatic conditions adapted to the growth and cultivation of an extremely extended list of plant material insure the feasibility of verdant covering and colorful gardens. Situated as it is, within easy access to Loyola University, contiguous to the site of the new Occidental College, within a few minutes drive from the University of California at Los Angeles to the east, and an even shorter distance from the great California Botanic Garden to the west, with fertile soil, temperate climate, incomparable outlook and the inspired and lofty motives back of the institution, it is no stretch of the imagination to picture this college in the future taking its place as one of the outstanding achievements in the United States.

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i lionnnsir ' I V. . L, Sister Ignatia During this golden year, Mount St. Mary's gives special thanks and recognition to one who has contributed fifty years of caring and working for the Mount. As a'Founder of the College, a teacher, and an artist, Sister Ignatia has enriched the Mount in many ways. Sister entered the Carondelet community in 1908 and taught at St. Mary's Academy before joining the original college faculty in 1925. She helped establish the Mount on its hill top campus when the school moved from the St. Mary's Academy location. In a Tidings interview in 1968, Sister recalled those early days when Brady Hall was the only building on campus: 6'We had the timber for a new building, but then the depression came with a bang and that ended that. We lived in three or four rooms. Students scrimped on clothes. They couldn't get jobs, even after graduation. They were kind to each other--and to usf' Many new buildings were to follow after the depression years, among them, the Marian Hall of Fine Arts which Sister Ignatia helped design. The Bel Air fire of 1961 destroyed the building along with many of Sisteris works. Sister served as chairman of the Art Department for thirty years and retired from active teaching in 1962. Although retired, Sister Ignatia expresses a very active love and concern for the Mount of 1975. ,Q Will ,,. . 1 fire r- fr -1 '-wwzciraii 1 ,HI N avg: 5 1 It -'slum rr ii at ,. H ' . ,'L ' Hs V, we .Lm,,,.,.A K., I 'i ,, . M' 1-,. .,..f:. , m f' ,. , ..,., g,, -. ,,,.4:,,L., ' A E 'Nia K : 43-fn Q- H . ,F ,,, U w,saiv--- , -- f 4- ' v yy' AVIN ,.A, y 1 .9 , :A A ' V ,i I1 'li ll. ,V ., A Q pV,.j.Af , , ' Q, 1 . Q, -fl - ' ' ' - -Xfxynfefrgv, -UH p. - - .,, ':'r. :'.. N f- A W. A.