St Josephs College - Footprints Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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From that moment on the morning of October 2, 1916, when she chmbed the steps of the gray frame building at 286 Washington Avenue, in the heart of one of Brooklyn ' s finest residential areas, each incoming freshman knew that she was making history. Whether or not she was fully aware of the world ' s tensions that had already precipitated a cataclysmic world war. she learned immediately that she was personally engaged in a fearsome responsibility — the laun- ching of the only Catholic day college for wom- en in all of Long Island. Monsignor Coan. pastor of Queen of All Saints Parish, within whose bounds the college was located, told her. in his sermon at the Mass of the Holy Spirit which opened the college year, that the Sisters of Saint Joseph and others interested in the higher education of women had exerted mighty efforts to bring the college into being. Its future, he said, would surely rest, to some extent, in the hands of the twelve pioneer students — the Twelve Apostles as he dubbed them — who were now defying all the pessimistic predictions about any woman who was the product of higher education. The plan for a Catholic day college in Brooklyn went back several years, but it began to take specific form in August. 1915. At that time it was proposed to ask the Board of Regents of New York State to raise St. Angela ' s Hall Academy, located on Washington Avenue near DeKalb Avenue, to the grade and title of St. Joseph ' s College for Young Women. After some delay (caused by a death in Chancellor Sexton ' s family) the provisional char- ter was issued on February 24, 1916.

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Quite obviously, the three immediate needs that had to be met by the founders of the college were: the recruitment of high-calibre students; the maintenance of top-grade academic achieve- ment at the college, and thirdly, the necessity of getting the indispensible financial backing which the Regents required. On May 24, 1916, at the Commencement exercises of St. Joseph ' s Aca- demy. Brentwood, Bishop McDonnell announced that arrangements had been completed for the opening in Brooklyn of an institution for the higher education of Catholic women. The need for such an institution, said the Bishop, has long existed, and I feel sure that this announce- ment will meet with the full appreciation of the clergy and laity alike. The tendency to material- ism in education at the present day must be met by sound religious teaching which the new col- lege will give. The twelve pioneer students who responded and came to the college on October 2, 1916. were a diversified group. In April 1917, during the very first year of the College ' s existence, the United States became involved in a global conflict to make the world safe for democracy. This not only affected each of the students in a personal way; it also gave a purposiveness to all their sophomore activities when they returned in the Fall of 1917, accompanied by fifteen new freshmen. Early in 1918 the College was able to purchase the beautiful Georgian home of George Pratt (one of the sons of Rockefeller ' s Standard Oil partner) located at 245 Clinton Avenue on the east side of the wide tree-lined street stretching from DeKalb to Willoughby Avenues on the apex of what was known as the Hill , a social rival to Brooklyn Heights. The new college site was only two blocks from the original building and the Sister members of the faculty continued to live on Washington Avenue for a few years. Everyone felt that the new acquisition gave concrete promise of permanence for the nascent college, and when the student body returned to classes in the Fall of 1918 there was sufficient room to accommodate the eleven new freshmen. More importantly the Twelve Apostles felt that they had met the challenge, and they re- corded in their annals: We knew then that St. Joseph ' s was, is, and always will be proud of her pioneers. By the time they had entered their Senior Year, the original twelve felt the joy of a task well done , as they put it. be- cause two new young women transferred from other colleges into their ranks. Towards the end of that year they had boasted: Our fame had become so great and our names so illustrious that May travels from the Bronx every day, and Amalia from East New York, so that they may be among the numbers of the first class to graduate from St. Joseph ' s. The pioneer class was not wrong in its judg- ment; the quality of education at St. Joseph ' s was • remarkably good for such an embryo institution.