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 McAuley 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