Mount Aloysius College
HISTORICAL WALKING TOUR Buildings and Grounds
The Main Building was completed in 1897.
Background Information Demetrius A. Gallitzin, Apostle of the Alleghenies founded the first Catholic parish in the Allegheny Mountains and named this settlement “Loretto”. Eight years after his death in 1840, the Sisters of Mercy took up residence in Loretto and opened a small school in a tinsmith’s shop. Demetrius Gallitzin
Sister Gertrude Blake obtained land in Loretto to build a convent and an academy for young girls. On May 14, 1853, the structure became the Academy of Our Lady of Loretto, later named Saint Aloysius Academy, in honor of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, the patron of youth. Under the leadership of Mother Mary de Sales Ihmsen and Mother Mary Gertrude Cosgrave, the school and religious community prospered. A parcel of land was purchased in Cresson from the Frank Powers family. In 1897, the motherhouse and academy moved to Cresson, an area more accessible to students because of its proximity to the mainline of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The academy was renamed Mount Aloysius Academy. The Main Building, constructed in the 1890s, was fashioned after a French chateau. The interior boasts woodwork hewn from the property’s cherry, maple and oak trees.
Walking Tour Site #1 – Main Building As our tour begins, face the front of The Main Building. Behind you is the area known as Whalley Plaza constructed in 2002. In front of you stands the great Main Building. Mother de Sales Ihmsen determined in 1891 to establish an academy at Cresson Springs, some four miles from Loretto, where options of transportation would give better opportunity to students. In that year, the Sisters of Mercy of Loretto purchased 35 acres on which they would eventually build a new structure to house St. Aloysius Academy and a convent for the Sisters of Mercy. Today’s campus consists of nearly 200 acres. The Main Building was designed by the Boston-Pittsburgh architects Longfellow, Alden and Harlow. The building is described in a book about the firm written by Margaret Henderson Floyd (Professor of Architectural History at Tufts University) and published by The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. Longfellow, Alden and Harlow designed this building at the same time they were designing the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh.
Main is a solid brick building, some 220 feet in width, with foundation walls 36 inches deep. Construction took several years (1892 – 1897). Unlike buildings constructed later, this is not simply brick-faced, but is brick from foundation to roof where the only steel beams of any size can be found. A kiln was built on site in the hopes of making bricks from the clay of the land, but these proved to be soft and unusable, so that venture was quickly abandoned. The walls are red brick with Ohio sandstone and terra cotta trim, and the roofs are soft green slate. The original slate roof was replaced in 1999 by a product called “Eternal Slate,” a manufactured look-a-like slate. In the time of Mount Aloysius Junior College, young women planted and named trees on the property. There was a Fitzgerald tree, after John F. Kennedy; a sycamore tree named Zacheus, after the New Testament character; and a copper beech tree, named Penny by its planters. None of these trees are still standing. However, to the right of Main is a beautifully formed, lovely copper beech tree that dates back to the 1920s.
Walking Tour Site #2 – Chapel Wing To the left of the Main Building, you will see Our Lady of Mercy Chapel. The Pittsburgh architect John Theodore Comes designed this chapel. He, with two other Pittsburgh architects, Edward Weber and Carlton Strong, constructed a Lombardy Romanesque structure of crystalline metamorphic rock (micaceous schist) and red brick with warm colored mortar. A Campanile tower that curves inward, subtly, from top to bottom, graces the exterior; and cloistered arches create a monastic effect throughout the building. Our Lady of Mercy Chapel was built in 1922 by local craftsmen from local resources.
Walking Tour Site #3 - Grotto As you follow the inner loop road to the left, you will see a Grotto dedicated to Our Lady. The grotto was originally built in 1918, a gift of the family of Sr. Hildegard Kemper (Butler, PA). In
1919 a great influenza epidemic swept over the country. Thousands died, but at Mount Aloysius prayers were offered daily at the Grotto of Our Lady. Not one case of the disease developed at the school. In gratitude, a plaque was placed at the Grotto in honor of Our Lady of Lourdes. The plaque reads: “In memoriam of preservation from the epidemic of 1918-1919…this plaque is gratefully inscribed…by the faculty and pupils of Mount Aloysius Academy.” Near the grotto you will notice one of the few mounting stones that still remain from the late nineteenth century. Such stones originally were used to mount horses.
Walking Tour Site #4 – Cemetery Continuing around the inner loop road, you will come to the Cemetery of the Religious Sisters of Mercy. The earliest grave is that of Sister Bridget Tobin who was buried on August 7, 1909. She professed her vows in 1847 in Pittsburgh, the first lay Sister of Mercy in the United States. Sisters deSales Ihmsen and Gertrude Cosgrave, foundresses of the Cresson Community of the Sisters of Mercy, are both buried here. Several persons who were not members of the congregation are also buried in the cemetery – most notably, Manuelita Harkins (Mannie), who came in 1890 as a six-year-old to the Loretto Academy and stayed with the Sisters until her death. She served primarily as chauffer and postmistress. This is an active cemetery, as the newest grave stone will attest.
Walking Tour Site #5 – Old Farm Buildings As you continue to walk the inner loop road, you will see a small, red brick building on the right hand side of the road. This one-story rectangular building was once a chicken coop and is all that remains of the once active farm from which the Sisters and boarders garnered meat and vegetables and fruit. A barn once stood where the parking lot is now. Fields for pasture surrounded the barn and extended up the hillside to the area where Pierce Hall is now located. The farm was discontinued in the mid-1960s.
Many senior Sisters of Mercy remember picking apples and green beans, feeding the chickens and cleaning milk cans. Major farm work, however, was conducted by hired men who lived in the Men’s House which now houses maintenance offices and a garage.
Walking Tour Site #6 – Small Pond Beyond the chicken coop, on the left side of the road, you will pass a small pond. This spring-fed body of water is all that remains of three earlier bodies of water. A large spring-fed reservoir was located beyond what are now tennis courts; a smaller spring-fed reservoir was located in the area now a parking lot. The current pond serves as a research site for science students and a place of quiet reflection for students and neighbors.
Walking Tour Site #7 – McAuley Hall Beyond the maintenance buildings, you will see Cosgrave Student Center (1967; expanded and renovated in 2004) and Academic Hall (1992). Cosgrave Student Center houses dining facilities and student activities offices. Academic Hall hosts most of the Psychology, Pre-law, History/ Political Science and Religious Studies courses. The newest building on campus, McAuley Hall, designed by L. R. Kimball & Associates, was dedicated in 2009. This residence hall houses 102 male and female students and meeting and study rooms. McAuley Hall is named for the foundress of the Sister of Mercy. A plaque inside the building gives a small history of the Sisters:
Catherine Elizabeth M cAuley founded the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831. Catherine used her inheritance in service to the needs of her time. She had a special concern for persons who were poor, sick or ignorant, for the needs of women, and for the faith formation of all persons. Before her death in 1841, Sisters of Mercy were engaged in the spiritual and corporal works of Mercy (feeding the hungry, instructing the ignorant, comforting the afflicted, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless and counseling the doubtful) in settings throughout Ireland and England. The Sisters of Mercy came to the United States in 1843 and have been ministering to the needs in this region of the
Alleghenies since 1848. “The simplest and most practical lesson I know is to resolve to be good today, but better tomorrow. Thus we may hope to get on – taking short careful steps, not great strides,” she is quoted as saying.
Walking Tour Site #8 – Pierce Hall As you continue to follow the inner loop road to the top of the hill, you will see Pierce Hall immediately before you and the Library building to your left. Pierce Hall (1997) is the newest academic building on campus and houses most of the science/allied health courses. The building was designed by Hayes, Large of Altoona, PA. All the basic science labs are located on the first floor. A surgical technology lab is set up as an operating room with scrub sinks, instruments and equipment used during a surgical procedure. The radiography labs house both upright and horizontal machines to take x-ray pictures during a lab experience.
Walking Tour Site #9 - Library At the top of the hill, overlooking the pedestrian mall and the college campus is the Library. This modern 31,000 square foot facility, designed by L. R. Kimball & Associates of Ebensburg, was opened in 1995. There are several pieces of particular interest in the library, should you decide to venture inside. At the top of the stairs on the second floor you will come to a large, encased model. The buildings shown are a model of the Mountain House, built in 1880-1881, by Doctor Robert Montgomery Smith Jackson. A health resort incorporated in 1854 by Dr. Jackson was moved to Cresson and renamed Cresson Springs Resort. The idea of the Mountain House was to bring visitors to the area by promoting Cresson’s natural springs and the idea that the water from these springs would bring “youthfulness”. The Mountain House served to accommodate the growing number of vacationers from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia visiting the mountains and “iron springs” in the Cresson Area. President Benjamin Harrison spent his vacation here about 1890, and Andrew Carnegie spent many of his summers here. He owned one of the 25 cottages located near the Mountain House Hotel at Cresson Springs.
Walking Tour Site #10 – Misciagna Hall As you begin to descend the hill on the inner loop road, you will pass the Anthony and Carolyn Claycomb Misciagna Hall (2006) which was built with the help of a generous donation from Tony Misciagna. The building, designed by L. R. Kimball & Associates of Ebensburg, is a state-of-the-art, apartment-style residence hall that houses 100 male and female students. Twentyfive suites with a private bath and lounge area are complimented by common rooms, study rooms and laundry facilities.
Walking Tour Site #11 – Ihmsen Hall (1963) Ihmsen Hall brings the tour back to the early beginnings of the campus. Ihmsen Hall (1963) is named in honor of Sister Mary deSales Ihmsen, co-foundress of the Sisters of Mercy-Cresson Community. This residence hall houses 200 students in rooms set up as suites with a bathroom between every two rooms.
Mother Mary deSales Ihmsen
Walking Tour Site #12 - Alumni Hall As you come to the end of the inner loop road, the back of the newly remodeled Alumni Hall is visible just beyond the guard house. Designed to be a music hall, the original building opened in 1902. A major donor was Charles Schwab, president of Bethlehem Steel. In addition, the alumnae association raised money to help fund the building and therefore it was called Alumnae Hall, a name that was changed when the Junior College became co-educational in 1969. Although Charles Schwab was not actually an alumnus, he took piano and elocution lessons at the Loretto Academy and was greatly interested in the institution. Architects, Alden and Harlow, designed this music hall in red brick with a terra cotta roof to complement the Main Building. In 2011, this lovely building was refurbished and renovated (e.g., the current entrance) without losing its earlier grandeur.
Mount Aloysius College traces its roots to Mount Aloysius Academy, opened in 1853 by Sisters of Mercy who emigrated from Dublin, Ireland. The College encourages students “to synthesize faith with learning, to develop competence with compassion, to put talents and gifts at the service of others and to assume leadership in the world community.� Today at Mount Aloysius, students can choose from over 70 programs of study and develop their skills to a state of the art level. Like President Foley, 70% of Mount Aloysius students represent the first generation in their families to attend college. The beautiful and historic campus is located on 193 acres in central Pennsylvania, at the summit of the Alleghenies in Cresson.
Brochure compiled by Helen Marie Burns, RSM, September 2011