AggiePhil .... Regarding the location of Ursuline Academy

I was not having any luck posting a pic of a mapquest map. But anyway, I think to find the original location of St Ursuline Hill and the Academy, follow Ursuline Street past the Federal Prison (formerly Allen Academy) to where it intersects East Villa Maria. Turn right on Villa Maria and in a short distance on the left is where I think the mansion stood. In the 70s there was 5-10 acres of open ground and a hilltop there ... and located on the hill was a very large brick home. The home in the 70s was uninhabited, windows broken out and derelict. Not long after that the house was demolished. I think that house was built on the spot formerly occupied by the Academy. (Notice that Ursuline Street extended would go right to that hill top as it would have in 1901.)

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 2/26/2007 2:42p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 2/26/2007 2:54p).]

Does this help at all fossil?



I snagged it from Google Earth.

Thanks for the map. The block of land I was speaking of has construction on 4 corners now ... but 30 years ago an abandoned two story brick home stood in the dead center of that plot.

Notice where Ursuline Street goes to if you extend it a couple of hundred yards. In 1901 that location would have been "out in the country" and the road connecting it with town would have been straight point to point.

Edit: That spot is 2 miles northeast of 26th and Preston Street ... St. Joseph Church.

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 2/26/2007 3:32p).]

Oh OK, so there aren't going to be any building remains there anymore? I was hoping that the plot hadn't been completely cleared and there might at least be a slab that remained.

What's the deal with the prison? I guess I've never seen it. It used to be a school?? How long ago was it a school? I wouldn't think they'd be able to turn a school building into a prison. Did they completely tear the academy down first?

Thanks fossil.

I can't find anything else useful regarding Ursuline Academy/Villa Maria Academy online. There's apparently not even a county historical marker on site.

It's interesting, though not quite related to this thread, that the same names running these schools kept popping up during my searches. Ursuline Sisters and Sister of the Incarnate Word. They were prolific school builders. Ursuline in San Antonio:



Ursuline moved and then closed it's doors a while ago making my old highschool the oldest in the city and perhaps the state.

Class of '99 - Shameless Self-Promotion Wanderlust

The Federal Prison took over the real estate of old Allen Academy in about 1980. Several of the buildings formerly used by Allen are still in use by the prison, although several new buildings have been added.

Allen Academy began in 1886 as an elementary/secondary school at Madisonville. In 1899 it was convinced by several prominent Bryan leaders to move the school to Bryan and become a boarding/college preparatory school for boys. In 1917 Allen added military training to its courses and maintained a solid reputation as a military boarding school for college preparation for the next 60 years. In the early 80s the school sold its former campus and relocated east of Bryan to the intersection of Hwy 1179 and Boonville Road (158.) The school also changed to Pre-K through HS.

Earliest Store at Northgate?

A week or so ago we were discussing early businesses at Northgate. For lack of a better suggestion by College Station historians, I am proposing that the first business at A&MC's North Gate was Boyett's Store. This photo from the A&M Archives is dated about 1910.



To support this claim, other photos taken from building rooftops in about 1912-14 show the street running north along what would later be Military Walk bending to the west abeam Sbisa before turning back north toward Northgate. That trajectory would have the street reaching Northgate, not at the location of the future College Main, but at a point near where the Campus Theater is located, BOYETT STREET.

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In those days before building foundations were no more than a few flat stones, relocating houses and buildings required no more than a stout team of mules. That old store may still be in use somewhere around Northgate ... maybe something like Cafe Eccel. (jk)

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 2/27/2007 9:50a).]

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but 30 years ago an abandoned two story brick home stood in the dead center of that plot.

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Didn't Messina Hof move that building to their vineyard or was it another building from the Nunnery?

RufusT Aggie ... I do not have the answer to your question. I have heard that there was a nunnery associated with Ursuline Academy but I do not know if it was located at the same site. Seems reasonable that it would have been. The intersection of Ursuline Avenue and Villa Maria street seems a dead on connection. Surely there is a local history source to answer athe questions.

Messina Hof web site had the following about their guest center:

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The tradition of Messina Hof is evident in the Guest Center, where you will encounter a 19th-Century estate home, originally built as a convent. The structure now serves as a breathtaking center of family antiques and lovely gift items. The deck and lake behind the winery provide a perfect setting for a relaxing picnic with a vineyard view.

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No picture of the guest center though.

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A week or so ago we were discussing early businesses at Northgate. For lack of a better suggestion by College Station historians, I am proposing that the first business at A&MC's North Gate was Boyett's Store.

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That would not be surprising. My former landlady when I lived in the apartment on the corner of Boyett St. and Church St. is the granddaughter of the Boyett who used to own all of the land on which the Northgate area sits.

She used to own the building where Fitzwilly's is now. It was an apartment building when she owned it, and it was affectionately called The Alamo by its residents. She also used to own the building where the Cow Hop was located.

AggiePhil, p_bubel, and Rufus T Aggie .....

A call to the Carnegie Library in Bryan and conversation with an expert there confirmed the original location of Ursuline Academy to have been at the spot I described above ... in that block of land bounded by East Villa Maria, Osborne Lane, Howell House Lane and Howell Avenue.

The two story house at that location in the 70s (apparently named Howell House) that I described had been built with the bricks removed from the old Ursuline Academy building when it was torn down. The Academy building also housed the nuns associated with the school. When that brick two story was demolished in the late 70s, the bricks were moved to Messina Hof Winery. So everyone was correct.

Some viewers may be concerned about the youthful appearance of the Aggie students sitting on the front porch of Boyett Store above. To bring those early times into perspective consider the biography of Frederich Ernst Giesecke (1886.) Dr. Giesecke graduated from New Braunfels High School in 1883 at age 13. He entered A&MC in the Fall 1883 at 14 and graduated in 1886 at 17. During the 1885-86 school year he was ranking officer in the Corps. He joined the A&M faculty and at age 19 was named head of the ME Department. He took time off to study at northeastern colleges and abroad and returned in 1905 to set up the Architecture Department at A&M and become the college Architect. He designed and supervised construction of all the major building at A&MC. In 1912 he left A&M for tu where he set up the School of Architecture there ...then returned to A&M for the rest of his career.

Obviously homo sapien americanus teenagers have devolved from those times a hundred years ago. (Or possible we are fortunate that Boyett Store did not sell Game Boys, IPods and Cell phones.)

Thanks Fossil. People used to think the house was haunted. No confirmation on the haunting part however.

My Great Grandmother managed "The Alamo" apartments (now Fitzwillys) for over 40 years. She moved out in 1979 (when I was 12)after the Boyett's decided they could make more money if their building was a saloon. (my grandmother's words) I have many great memories of staying at The Alamo. The Chicken was next door and we slept with the windows open. I got quite an education. I will look for a photo to post.

[This message has been edited by tman2 (edited 2/27/2007 2:07p).]

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A call to the Carnegie Library in Bryan and conversation with an expert there confirmed the original location of Ursuline Academy to have been at the spot I described above ... in that block of land bounded by East Villa Maria, Osborne Lane, Howell House Lane and Howell Avenue.

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Excellent. Thanks for confirming that.

There is indeed a historical marker for the Villa Maria Academy. It was put up a couple of years ago.

Here is info on the historical marker for the Villa Maria Ursuline Academy. My grandfather and all his siblings attended St. Joseph Catholic School. He said most young kids around College Station either when to St. Joe's or Allen Academy and then they would go to junior high and high school at Consolidated. To get to school they would load up in a wagon and go to the streetcar stop at Sulphur Springs and South College. They would then take the street car to school.

Marker Number: 13279
Marker Title: Site of Villa Maria Ursuline Academy
Index Entry: Villa Maria Ursuline Academy, Site of
Address: 2400 Osborn Ln
City: Bryan
County: Brazos
Year Marker Erected: 2005
Marker Location: 2400 Osborn Ln
Marker Text: The Ursuline Sisters, founded by St. Angela in Italy in 1535, opened their first girls' school in North America in Quebec in 1639. In 1727, they opened the Ursuline Academy in New Orleans, followed in 1846 with the Ursuline Academy in Galveston. In addition to teaching, the nuns served as nurses during epidemics, hurricanes, fires and the Civil War. Their Galveston Academy building served as a refugee shelter despite heavy damages sustained in the devastating 1900 storm. Seeking a new school site further inland, Mother Superior Mary Joseph Dallmer selected Bryan over several other cities. With donations from Bryan citizens, the sisters purchased land from W.R. and Mary (Mitchell) Cavitt and began plans for Villa Maria Ursuline Academy at this site, which became known as St. Ursula's Hill. Contractor George Jenkins built a school and dormitory using a Nicholas Clayton design. The school opened in September 1901, but construction continued until October 21, St. Ursula's feast day. Girls at the academy studied traditional subjects, as well as sports and music, and maintained a large farm. The sisters worked closely with St. Joseph's Catholic Church and School, where they also taught. Facing low enrollment and burdened by the debt of costly building repairs, Villa Maria Ursuline Academy closed in 1929. Former U.S. Consul General Williamson S. Howell, Jr. bought the property and built a 24-room house using bricks from the school. The few graves of Ursuline nuns on the property were removed to Galveston, where the school resumed operations. Howell later sold to Allen Academy, which retained ownership until 1973. Today, nearby street names reflect the impact of both the academy and Howell. (2005)

snicks ... I have lived in CS for 35 years and have picked up bits and pieces of Ursuline Academy history but this thread it the only place I have run across that ties all the loose ends together ... a picture of the original school, the exact location, the early history, and its connection of the Howell House and Messina Hof winery.

Thank you for the information you provided. My youngest son attended elementary and high school at Allen Academy at the original campus in the 70s and I drove by the derelict Howell House several times a week. I felt sure there was an interesting story there somewhere.

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There is indeed a historical marker for the Villa Maria Academy. It was put up a couple of years ago.

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Apparently the website I was looking through has not been updated recently.

I'm glad to be wrong, thanks.

[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 2/28/2007 9:26a).]

I attend St. Joe's as kid as well. There used to be a big rival in football with Allen Academy and St. Joe's. It was incorporated into a field day and then a dance with both of the schools. I remember going to the Allen Acadmeny Campus quite often.

I have this aerial view framed in my study...I found it in the steam tunnel underneath the Daugherty building when I worked as an electrician's helper during school...we had narrowed it down to '74-'76...

Fleen .... Reference your top photo. Do you see the small L-shaped building across the street from the northwest corner of the Systems Administration Building (present site of Langford Architecture Center?) It has an interesting and somewhat amusing history. I will fill in that bit of campusology as soon as I can recollect some dates and events.

Here is the story of that small building. (It was easier to copy and paste from another thread I posted it on about a year ago.)

"Where is the mummy?"

This was a question that bedeviled Corps Fish for decades in Sbisa and Duncan Dining Halls. The dreaded "mummy" question routinely dampened all hopes of dessert at that mealtime for decades of Fish who at the end of the meal had requested a "Cush Question" from the ranking upperclassman at the table in order to qualify for dessert. The questions were always concerned with A&M historical trivia ... and depending on the quality of the dessert for that meal ranged from difficult to impossible. The "mummy" question was considered impossible.

Now for all you old timers who searched diligently about the campus for the mummy during your Fish years, and failed, here is the answer.

The mummy was located in the college museum.

Still lost? I can understand that. Nowadays it seems every department on campus has a museum of some sort, including the former President of the United States. But before 1965 there was only one.

The reason you can't place it is because it was located in the back half of a building named the Serum Laboratory. Do you understand now why Fish had such a tough time finding it?

The Serum Laboratory was constructed in 1917 in what was then part of the college cow pasture. It was located close to the northwest corner of the Systems Administration Building which was not built until 1933 and due north of the O&M building when it was built in 1973. It was razed sometime between '73 and '76 when that location was readied for construction of the Langford Architecture Center in 1978. (Edit: The Systems Building was built on the spot formerly occupied by the college Livestock Barn.)

Do you recognize this building? The Serum Laboratory (and Museum.)



Anyway, the first museum on campus, located in the Serum Laboratory, existed from 1937 to 1965. And an Egyptian Mummy was part of its collections. When the museum was discontinued in 1965 the mummy was loaned to the Houston Museum of Natural History.

Hey, that is still a good question: "Where is A&M's old mummy located NOW?"

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 2/28/2007 10:30a).]

I was just browsing this thread and that photo jumped out at me...There was a little damage when the photo was removed from the original frame but looks very nice in our new CS home...

Fleen ... In the same map above, the small building located north of Krueger Residence Hall (between Krueger and Teague Building) is the Stallion Stables from the 30s when the Golf Course was horse pastures. It was remodeled and has been used as offices for a dozen different activities in the past 70 years.

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 2/28/2007 12:55p).]

Cool, I have been going back through this thread locating places on the aerial all morning...

First Play-By-Play Football Broadcast

Legends from the early days of A&MC are not always accurate. In the retelling of those stories, sometime details are lost or misstated or misinterpreted to the point that accuracy is compromised. One legend that has suffered a number of errors in fact in the past 80 some odd years has to do with the first radio broadcast of a football game. This is the true story, extracted from reports submitted by those directly involved in the 1921 broadcast.

The date was Thursday (Thanksgiving Day), November 24, 1921 (not 1919 or 1920 as you may have heard.) The game was between Texas A&M and the University of Texas and the game was being played at Kyle Field. The broadcaster in the Kyle Field pressbox was H.M. Saunders ('21) and he was assisted by two spotters (A&M and TU.) Saunder's equipment was not a microphone but a telegraph transmitting key plus a headset.

Wire tied to posts, trees and over buildings connected the press box to the radio transmitter located in a room in the Electrical Engineering Building (Bolton Hall.) Call letters for A&M station were 5XB (X denoting an experimental station.) Call letter for the TU station were 5XU. W.A. Doc Tolson ('23) was Chief Operator of station 5XB but he did not participate in the actual broadcast because of duties in the Aggie Band ... but he was instrumental in gathering the equipment from a variety of sources to construct the transmitter. (And excused himself briefly from band duties to run to Bolton to reset a fuse during the broadcast.)

Pictured below is Doc Tolson and the 1921 transmitter for A&MC radio station 5XB.



Now, how this all began. Early in 1921 Tolson and other members of the radio club at A&M (established in 1912) contacted student members of the radio club at TU and over time worked out details of the A&M station broadcasting a play by play of the game in College Station to the TU station and for them to broadcast the information received by loudspeaker to TU students gathered there. It was agreed and both student groups began work.

First order for A&M students was to build a transmitter with sufficient power and stamina to broadcast 3 hours straight. Some equipment they borrowed from WWI Signal Corps assets still on campus, some they had to design and build, and some admittedly was pilfered from various laboratories. The antenna was a wire strung from a tower on top of Bolton Hall to the roof of Legett Hall. There were tons of technical details that I will not go into.

But the clincher was that the broadcast would necessarily be in Morse Code since voice transmission was not available at the time.

The problem: how to do a play-by-play in Morse Code since a good telegraph operator could send only about 20 words per minute; speaking voice is about 120 words per minute. The key was a shorthand code developed with the help of an assistant coach to represent players, plays, yardage, etc., that could be worked into a 2 or 3 character bit. Using this, the telegrapher could describe an entire play with 6 or 8 characters, about the length of one word. Ham radio operators throughout the state overheard the planning of this shorthand code and requests began piling into the EE building for copies of the game code.

On the day of the game, this is the way it worked. H.M. Saunders, aided by his spotters, watched the play. Saunders used his shorthand code book tapped the coded letters in Morse Code which went directly to the Bolton Hall transmitter ... and from there into the air all over Texas. The fellows at the University of Texas copied the Morse Code dits and dahs to arrive at the message encoded in the prearranged shorthand. The next person at the table translated the shorthand into clear text and this was read by another person over a loudspeaker to the crowd of students on the ground below.

The broadcast at TU was real-time, play-by-play of a football game 90 miles away ... something never before accomplished.

The final score of the game was 0-0, a scoreless tie. And that my friends are the facts behind the legend ... and the story gets better each time it is told.

For more a detailed description follow the link below to the website of the TAMU Ham Radio Club ... now with call letters W5AC.

http://w5ac.tamu.edu/5xb.php

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 2/28/2007 10:10p).]

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[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 3/2/2007 8:55a).]

I think KANM (the student run on-campus radio network) is still using that very same console to this day!

Bachelor Hall and Buggy House

In about 1890 A&MC built a house as living quarters for bachelor faculty members. It was located in the vicinity of where Walton Hall stands today. In 1917 it was converted into two apartments apparently for families. By that time the bachelor residents had relocated to other quarters in the Shirley Hotel. The building burned sometime between 1920 and 1925 (it is visible in a 1920 aerial photo but not in a photo dated 1925.



This photo was take in about 1920 probably after the Hall had been converted to apartments. The caption for the picture called it the old Visitor's Quarters.



[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 3/1/2007 3:39p).]

The Shirley Hotel

The old Bachelor Hall was the first residency for faculty members on campus, but one look at the hard-bitten stares of some of the residents in the photo above is the first clue that close quarters of that house would not be attractive to the majority of the single faculty.

Sure enough, in 1906 some members of the old Bachelor's Club petitioned the college for permission to build another house to house a new organization called the A&MC Faculty Club. The new Faculty Club wanted permission to construct their own house, set its own rules and operate independent of outside forces. So, with member labor, supplemented by students, they built their own "hotel." Consistent with their own nature, members decided to name the structure by putting names of members and guests in a hat and drawing ... the person's name drawn was Shirley, the young daughter of another faculty member, ... so Shirley Hotel it became.

The story of the Shirley Hotel, and the description of life in general of bachelor faculty during those earlier times was best told by Donald H. Dyal at the website below. It is a great read and well worth your time.

http://library.tamu.edu/cushing/collectn/univarch/shirley/shirley2.html

This is a photo of the infamous Shirley Hotel, built in 1906 and survived until a date I will have to research. The best I can determine it was located east of Science Hall and probably in the vicinity of where the Pavilion now stands. This would be reasonable because the Natatorium was nearby next to Bagley Hall.



[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 3/1/2007 5:23p).]

To all those interested in the old Allen Academy locations, 6 yrs ago I lived near the intersection of Villa Maria, Ursuline, and Osborne st. In the google photo you can see a large vacant area to the right of Osborne. There is a lot of concrete rubble, power poles and other evidence of buildings, as well as ball fields, some still in use. I was told this area was part of the academy as well. If you see where Howell dead ends in a T intersection, there is a dirt road (unseen) that extends to highway 6. There are now houses where I used to take my dog walking. There was a pond in the woods there that had beaver in it. There was an old rock cistern beside the pond that looked like it had been there forever and I always associated it w/ the remnants of the academy based on what folks had told me about the area. There was alot of trash being dumped there also. I found a wal mart sack full of old football cards including many of the cowboys from the late 70's. Many of the houses across Ursuline from the womens prison were part of the Academy and were used for such things as infirmaries, housing for employees etc. I have a friend that lives in one of the houses that was once part of the Academy and he related this to me. Hope all this sheds more light on it.

[This message has been edited by marcel ledbetter (edited 3/1/2007 4:26p).]

Seems like a lot of buildings burned down on campus in the early 1900s. Was that common for that era?

Drivinwest ...

The college did suffer some devastating fires in those early days .... but in checking the actual records one might conclude they were very fortunate that there were not more considering the number of fireplaces and the timber used in the early structures

Of the major buildings:

Old Main Building .... Built 1875 Burned 1912
M.E. Shops ........... Built 1892 Burned 1920
Old Mess Hall ........ Built 1897 Burned 1911
Presidents Home ...... Built 1892 Burned 1963
Bd of Directors Home . built 1912 Burned 1979

Of the wooden structures such as Bachelor Hall, I am sure many of those burned due to fireplaces for heat and some cooking. Embers popping out of the fireplace onto the floor, embers drafted up the chimney and landing on the wood shingle roofs, and flue fires from built up soot inside chimneys were a constant hazard in all houses of that period.

marcel ledbetter ... Thanks for sharing the additonal information about Allen Academy and the Ursuline Academy.

Regarding Allen, in the 70s standing a short distance east of Allen and on the north side of Ursuline Ave were two large two story frame houses. One was for the Headmaster and I do not know who occupied the other. The Prison may have demolished those houses by now.

Regarding Ursuline Academy, I am very sure that in 1901 that new Academy stood alone with few if any neighbors. And quite likely owned more land than the block where Howell House was located. The lady I talked to at Carnegie Library had a photo from the old campus and she said there were two outbuilding on the property ... possibly they were related to the cistern and other materials you knew about. If there were any male members of the Academy workforce, i.e., for maintenance, etc., they would have had quarters separate from the main building which also served as a Convent. The Carnegie Library has a file and all our questions can probably be answered there.