St. Mary's College of Maryland Preservation Master Plan

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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
St. Mary’s College of MarylandPreservation Master PlanHistoric St. Mary’s City February 2008receive degrees graduated in 1930 (Fausz 1990:73-76).Alumnae Lodge, following completion in 1924(Courtesy of SMCM Archives).The school now offered two separate high school curriculumtracks (a general curriculum and a college preparatorycurriculum), a one-year secretarial studies program for highschool graduates, and an associate’s degree program.. Withina decade, 95 different junior college courses were availableand students could group them into concentrations, withconcentration choices depending on whether they intendedto go on to complete a B.A. elsewhere or to complete theireducation with an A.A. Courses offered included an arrayof liberal arts subjects, as well as more practical subjectslike home economics and business, as was offered at manyjunior colleges. The expansion of the school’s academicofferings intensified the need for highly qualified instructorsto teach more advanced courses, and most teachersrecruited after this time had at least some graduate trainingif not a master’s degree. The influx of instructors with highcredentials resulted in St. Mary’s Seminary’s high schoolprogram finally receiving formal accreditation from theAssociation of Colleges and Secondary Schools of theMiddle States and Maryland in 1930. In 1931, the highschool program was ranked as a First Class, First GroupHigh School by Maryland’s Department of Education (Fausz1990:73-76).Rare 1931 view of Caretaker’s Cottage on itsoriginal site near Garden of Remembrance;this building was moved in 1935 and is nowknown as the White House (Courtesy ofSMCM Archives).View of frame outbuildings that stood nearsite of current Boathouse in 1931 (Courtesy ofSMCM Archives).Page 2-24As the 1934 Tercentenary of Maryland’s foundingapproached, St. Mary’s Seminary was a key part of theplanning, and a number of improvements were made to thecampus with this event in mind. Anticipating large crowds,unprecedented publicity, and belated recognition of thehistoric significance of the school’s location, the schoolgeared up to present its best face to the visitors. In 1927, thesenior class of the high school gave a cast-iron arched signthat was mounted over the gates by Calvert Hall. In early1929, the school trustees finally secured an appropriationto build the planned perpendicular riverside wing of CalvertHall, which was completed as the school year began. TheMaryland seal and the white paint treatment on the mainportico were added at this time as well, and the new wingwas fortunately finished just six weeks before the stockmarket crash of October 24 th , 1929 plunged the country intothe Great Depression. Beginning in 1923, the Seminaryused a Delco generator, housed in a small brick buildingnext to St. Mary’s Hall, to provide limited electrical serviceon campus. Use of a generator for electricity was standardpractice in rural Southern Maryland at that time. In May of1931, the school was connected to “city current” through theCalvert County lines of the Eastern Shore Power Company.Public electrical service was not available to most St.Mary’s County residents until 1937, when the Southern
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