Saint Joseph’s College, recently renamed the University of Saint Joseph, in West Hartford was founded in 1932 by the Sisters of Mercy, a religious institute of Catholic women. It was the first liberal arts college for women in the Hartford area. Classes were initially held at Mount Saint Joseph Academy, before the college moved to its own campus. Sister Mary Rosa McDonough, the College’s first dean, oversaw construction of the original campus buildings. The Administration and Science Building, erected in 1936, was renamed McDonough Hall in her honor in 1969.
McDonough Hall, University of Saint Joseph (1936)
Just FYI. The Mount, as Mount Saint Joseph Academy was known, was founded many years before the college and was not on the same campus on Asylum Ave but nearby on Fern Street at a place called Hamilton Heights. The beautiful building is still there and has been converted into condos for seniors. My mom and grandmother were both Mount grads, and that school was kind of a legend in the area.
I have edited the text to reflect the correct history.
My mother and sister were both graduates of the Mount
. It’s too bad in couldn’t have survived.