St. Mary's College of Maryland Preservation Master Plan

St. Mary’s College of MarylandPreservation Master PlanHistoric St. Mary’s City February 2008cornerstone of the new building was laid on August 3, 1924,but the students, faculty, and staff endured another year oftemporary facilities while construction went on. The newbuilding was completed, and promptly occupied, just twoweeks before the end of the spring term in 1925. Standinga full three stories tall atop an English basement, thereconstructed Calvert Hall had all the modern conveniencesand was furnished by generous donors with a number ofvaluable antiques and artworks. The riverfront wing wascompleted a few years later, in 1929 (Fausz 1990:66-71;Whitmore and Keen 1981:9-11).Following the fire, the remains of the old stable behindCalvert Hall soon became the new site of an Alumnae Lodge.Constructed of brick salvaged from the stable, some of whichreportedly had come from the old State House of 1676, theColonial Revival-style Alumnae Lodge was paid for by a$2,000 gift from the Alumnae Association and dedicated inJuly of 1924 (Fausz 1990:68,71). The alumnae graciouslyloaned the building to the current Seminary students duringthe 1924-1925 school year, to alleviate the housing crunchuntil Calvert Hall was rebuilt (Fausz 1990:68; Whitmoreand Keen 1981:11). The temporary Barracks that hadhoused the students and dining hall during the rebuildingperiod was dismantled and its lumber recycled to build aone-story frame cottage for the Seminary caretaker and hisfamily. The cottage was originally located between CalvertHall and the Alumnae Lodge, with a mulberry tree growingnearby (Fausz 1990:80-82; Haugaard 2007; Haugaard etal. 2007:12, 14). At the bottom of the hill were a new pumphouse, chicken coop, and garage, also built from the surpluslumber. These frame buildings were all documented witha map and photographs in a 1931 insurance policy on theSeminary (Henry M. Warfield-Roloson Co. 1931).With rebuilding behind them and debt once again hoveringover the Seminary, Miss France and the trustees hit upona radical new direction for the struggling institution: raise itsstandards to incorporate a junior college level. In the fall of1926, St. Mary’s Female Seminary offered a Junior CollegeDivision, placing it at the forefront of a nationwide juniorcollege movement. It was the first junior college in Maryland,and the only public, all-female junior college in the country.The new division promised aspiring freshman women theopportunity for an excellent and relatively inexpensive juniorcollege education in a congenial setting with individualizedattention and guidance. This move eventually proved thekey to ensuring the Seminary’s long-term survival. Already,it had outlasted most female seminaries of its peer group.By the fall of 1928, the renamed St. Mary’s Seminary-JuniorCollege was fully operational. The first four women toFurnished memorial dormitory room in CalvertHall, ca. 1925 (Fausz 1990:69).Rebuilt Calvert Hall, 1931 (Courtesy of SMCMArchives).Riverfront wing added in 1929, view from1968 (Courtesy of SMCM Archives).Page 2-23