In the approximate years 1902-1959, a girls' school, Ursuline Academy, stood on high ground on the southeast corner of East 165th Street and the Grand Concourse. The same congregation of religious sisters that ran the Academy of Mount Saint Ursula in Bedford Park also taught in this school.
A photograph from the New York Public Library is linked HERE.
An excellent photo of the corner site is HERE. What a staircase! I used to think of it built atop a pile of rocks.
Pope Leo XIII urged religious congregations that shared a common founder to reunite as Rome-centered groups. The Sisters of various Ursuline houses were asked whether they wished to join such a Roman Union, and the Bronxites agreed. Apparently, they needed a location for a provincialate, bought the Grand Concourse rock and created thereupon a convent and school.
21 comments:
What a wonderful photo! I was wondering if you had any idea where to begin trying to find a relative. This would be my great-grandfather's sister, and we have a letter dated December 22, 1920 from the Academy at 1032 Grand Concourse. She signed it "Sister M. Martha"; we are thinking it might be Mary. My mom was born in 1937 and vaguely remembers hearing about a "Martha" but doesn't remember her grandfather (Patrick Sullivan, born in Ireland and emigrated in 1882) ever talking about any siblings. We are thinking the Sister must have died before or shortly after my mother was born. We have no birth or death dates for this mystery sibling which makes it difficult to search any online databases. Any suggestions would be most appreciated! Thanking you in advance! Diane M. Sanabria: email dsanabri@leominsterlibrary.org
I posted a comment on 2/14/20 but, I believe it was lost somehow or another.
I attended the Urseline in or about 1949 to 1952. I attended the Urseline on the Grand Concourse and, as I remember, at the time, I was not the happiest little girl. However, I came to love it, sorry, I ever left. However, when I was there, we used to refer to the good sisters as "Mother" and, that they were. I went there because I became orphaned. However, what I learned at the Urseline was a treasure trove of invaluable life lessons well learned by this little girl. I have used most everything I learned all through my adult life. After leaving the Urseline, I ultimately ended up in foster homes but, turned out well. I feel the Urseline has molded me into what and who I am today. I am a very graateful lady. I often think of the good sisters and pray for them. Although, probably most of the sister I had have probably have passed on to their well deserved final reward. Since I left the Urseline, I was fortunate to have an interesting, not the easiest, but made the best of life. Over the years, I had many experiences and people have said to me, "you should write a book", I am in the process of doing just that. I decided to see if it was possible to make contact with someone at the Urseline. Thank you in advance for anyone I can make contact with.
Joan Kinney,jojok63@bellsouth.net
Hello, I attended the Ursuline Academy. The Ursuline nuns were referred to as "Mother" (i.e., Mother Margaret Mary, Mother Paul Marie, etc.) Not Sister. Hope this helps.
I was a student at the Academy for five years, 1954-1959, first as a border and then as a day student. As borders we rose at six and attended mass before breakfast. Meals were taken in silence. Since the Ursulines were a cloistered order, they only spoke when necessary and to give instruction. The education they provided was rather mediocre, but I did benefit from instruction in French and Latin.
Our graduating clas had 24 students. On a senior trip to D.C. we learned about segregation since the bus could not take a rest stop in Maryland because one of our classmates was black. She was probably the most affluent in the class, living in a house in Westchester County. Most of the students were from working class families and some single parents.
The Academy was still a going concern in 1960, but it was my understanding the Bishop ordered the property sold for the construction of another apartment building after the hill was taken away.
I ws lucky enough to go to Ursuline Academy for high school - from 1952 to 1956. the school had been closed for some yers due to financial issues so we, the class of 1952, were the first class when it opened again. I remember there being only about 23 students in the class. And we were the ONLY class in the school. We did not have much choice of classes. As I remember it, it wasn't until senior year that we could choose between fourth year Latin and chemistry. I chose fourth year Latin -- I loved Latin. I loved everything about Ursuline Academy. We had trips to Center Moriches and we had retreats. The only thing i didn't like was algebra and geometry. To this day I need a calculator for the simplest piece of math!!!
Silvia Sanza, August 12, 2023
Dear Silvia,
I attended from 1951 until it closed in '59. I was in 7th grade then. Never had more than 12 girls in my class. It was my true home and I was devastated when we had to leave. I still recall every inch of the property. Some of your story doesn't match up with mine but I would love to compare notes, if you're willing.
Sandra Monahan/Malzone
I too went to Ursuline Academy from 1952 to 1956 and was in the same class as the prior blogger, Silvia Sanza. I feel we were very lucky to have the quality of education that the Ursuline nuns provided. Because the school had reopened after some financial difficulties in previous years, our freshman class was the only class. Each upcoming year a new class was added. When I graduated in 1956 the student body numbered about 100. It was a very special private school, that because of its size provided many unique educational experiences. One year for physical education, the semester was divided into special blocks for varied sports activities. The one activity was fencing, which certainly not available as an option in other nearby high schools. Because the school was so small, I had opportunities for developing leadership skills that I was able to use in my career in education.
Ellen Grady Leahy. ellen_leahy@verizon.net
dear Ellen Grady! what a thrill to see your name! Actually, you and a couple of others (Ann and Barbara)were the only ones I saw so long after we graduated in 1956. The fou of u hd lunch I belive alhto I annot remember where!
I still recall one teacher whose name I shall not mention. I was out sick one day and this paticular nun talked about me in class. That night my friend Jacqueline called me and said "Mother ------ called you a dullard." I had never heard that word and then I found out what it meant. It hurt but the truth is that that nun was right. I have had two novels published in London, one more on Amazon, and another coming out soon again in London on Blaak Spring Press. So, yes, I was not a total dullard because I could write! But when it comes to numbers, indeed I am a dullard. And the birth of technology was no friend to me!!! I can grasp only the most basic things on a computer but I still wonder what the hell we needed algebra and geometry for. Our classmate Joan Hoolan Ruffino tutored me and that got me to graduation day. But to this day I'd rather sit down and write a whole novel than attempt to solve the easiest algebra problem. by the way, I have no clue as to what the difference is between algebra and geomtry . . . Silvia
Our great aunt was a nun at the Ursuline Academy. Her name was Mother Angela and she was very short - about 5' tall. Her real name was Nora Agnes Stack. She was posted to the Ursuline Academy in Middletown NY but later on was transferred to the Ursuline Academy on the Grand Concourse. We have a very large family - her brother, my grandfather Joseph Stack, DDS was the dentist to all of the nuns. Just wondering whether anyone remembers Mother Angela?
hi Susan,
I do not remember a Mother "Angela" and wonder what yeARS she was At Ursuline Academy on the Grand Concourse and what subject she taught.. Some of the prior comments are confusing for me as far as the years go. I remember our class of 1952 was the very first class in several years. We had only one clssroom and no choice of a second subject until senior year. We were 23 students. I wonder if your great aunt was a nun earier or later than I was there.
Dear Silvia,
Thank you for your response! The dates are difficult to ascertain She was definitely at the Grand Concourse in her 70s (so in the 1950s) and I assumed, given your comments, that since yours was the first class in several years, that she was brought down from Ursuline Academy Middletown to help reopen. I do know that Mother Angela became ill when she was stationed at the Grand Concourse and was ultimately transferred back to Middletown for her care; that is where we believe she eventually passed away and is buried. This was difficult on her family (there were 11 siblings) because most of the family lived in the Bronx and travel wasn't as easy or swift to see her in Middletown in those days.
It's difficult to research my family because we have many nuns and priests and the records are not really available to Ancestry or to the outside world; they are kept privately by the religious orders. Once a woman entered the Convent, it's as if they disappeared from any government rolls, especially when the Order was semi-cloistered. I have had a hard time even finding the date of Mother Angela's death. She was born around 1880 so she would have been in her 70s if she had been with you in the 1950s and again, probably fell ill about that time. It's possible that she was in the Convent but not teaching.
It was worth a shot to ask you! I can't thank you enough for trying to remember Mother Angela. All the best and God bless!
Hi Susan,
This is in response to your search for information on your grandaunt, Mother Angela. I was a student at Ursuline Academy between 1952 and 1956. On the Ursuline campus on 165th St and Grand Concourse there were several buildings besides the convent which housed the high school. There was the gymnasium/auditorium, and the grade school/boarders' cottage. I remember Mother Angela, a short heavy set, jolly nun who wore clear glasses without a frame. I talked to a fellow classmate, Valerie Ackerman who said Mother Angela was her 6th grade teacher which would have been in 1949. Valerie's mother was divorced and worked in the city. Valerie was a boarder from grades 1-3, then a commuting student for the remaining grades 4-8 when she then was enrolled in the high school. She told me the tuition was $30. I always associated Mother Angela with the younger students. Another classmate of mine was June Nissen who volunteered after school to supervise the boarders from 3 o'clock to 5 o'clock with playgroup activities outside the cottage. I hope this information is helpful.
Ellen Grady Leahy. ellen_leahy@verizon.net
To All who have posted here,
I attended Ursuline Academy from 1951 to 1959, starting in Kindergarten (on the first floor of the little green "priest's house.") I remember every inch of the buildings and grounds and the names of most of teachers and classmates and a few names of students ahead of me. That was a very special school and the time I spent there saved my life.
Unfortunately, I don't recall Mother Angela but my cousin, who attended through 3rd grade and was two years ahead of me did remember her fondly. Sadly, my cousin, has already passed on so I cannot ask her more.
The property on which the school stood, high up on "the Rock" at 165th St and The Grand Concourse, is now the site of The Bronx Museum of Art, which pleases me. I believe it is true that it did struggle to support itself but, I believe the final straw was that most of the buildings were wooden structures and the city was phasing out what were considered fire hazards. In fact, there had been a fire in what we called the "old high school building." It stood opposite the grotto garden and next to the outdoor basketball court. The money that it would have taken to bring the rest of the buildings up to code was more than could be justified for such a small number of students. At least the Bishop thought so.
I believe, at first, the property was sold to a Jewish community which razed the buildings and built a temple but later sold the property to the city, who leveled "the Rock" itself. The museum now sits at ground level.
At various points in my time there, I had classes in all of the buildings. First and second grade in the classroom wing of the convent building, with Mother Martina and Mother Boniface respectively; 3rd and 4th grade in the newly rebuilt building mentioned above with Mother Anna for 3rd and a lay teacher, whose name I've forgotten, for 4th; 5th ( with M. Anna, again) and 6th (with M. Laetitia) in former bedrooms of the "cottage" as there were almost no boarders by then. In 7th grade, I was back in the "new building" with M. Annunciata. On one of the last days of school that year, M. Helen, our principal at the time, although she would go on to become Mother Superior at the mother house (up the road at Mt St Ursula on 200th St, just off the Concourse) made her rounds of all the classrooms to tell us the school was closing.
It broke my heart to leave Ursuline Academy. Many of the students, including myself, had unconventional home lives, if we had homes at all, and we were loved by our religious Mothers, who were often old enough to be our grandmothers.
Some other names I would like to put out here for memory sake:
Mother Bonaventure, a very large woman who supervised lunches in the Tea Room (below ground and under the gym, which was under the chapel) and sold us candy, often first asking, "Did you eat all of your lunch?" After lunch, she helped supervise playtime from her perch on the corner of the wrap-around porch of the convent, the candy-money box, safely tucked under her chair.
Miss May, who lived on the top floor of the cottage and taught piano in the reception room.
Miss Angelou, my kindergarten teacher who, as I told my mother, "knew everything" but wouldn't let me play with the toy cars because they were for the boys. (Oh yes, there were boys in Kindergarten) I was relegated to the kitchen area because I was a girl and handed a broom with which to sweep up. I guess she didn't really know everything after all.
I hope to hear more from my fellow schoolmates with any memories you can dig up. I would love to find some familiar names among you. I didn't recognize any of the names of those of you who have already written. I do recall a Maureen Whelan but not a Susan. However I did know a Susan Hamilton, the only boarder in my grade, and not an Ellen but a Mary Ellen.
May your lives all be filled with lovely memories and may the women who taught and cared for us all rest in the Great Peace.
Dear Sandra,
I so much enjoyed your post. You taught me a lot that i had no knowledge of! My memories of Ursuline are so rich and I thank God and my parents for having me go to school there. I loved the nuns and I felt so close to God when I was in the chapel, I hope many of my classmates have accwss to this link-- I don't have too many e-mails to alert them. Yuor writig is lovely and your descriptions brilliant..
I thought that the property was sold to a company who put up an an apartment building but you say otherwise. Thank you for your wonderful words! The nuns I remember the most are Mother St Mark, Moher Antonia, Mere Emmanuel, he Fench techer, Moher Miriam, Morher Annunciata. We had some lay techers, one was Miss O'Grady, an English teacher. I loved her because I loved writing and she gifted us with many fascinating stories.
Silvia Sanza - 1952-1956
Happy Easter to all of you wonderful ladies! I loved all the posts. What a gift at Easter to be searching for information and to receive such inspiring feedback providing such a rich history of Ursuline Academy! Thank you for sharing this slice of the goodness of nuns who were kind and dedicated and a school that tried to provide a lifelong education with Catholic underpinnings! I am glad that my search sparked some memories and conversations.
I've found out a few more tidbits of information about my relative that may be of interest to you:
Mother Angela was the head of Ursuline Academy, Middletown NY. I was proud to read in a newspaper that she added a "commercial department" to the curriculum which included "bookkeeping, commercial arithmetic, commercial law, office practice, business English and spelling." Three of her brothers were doctors so I think she was quite bright and a woman ahead of her time and passing it on to young women!
One of her good friends was Missy LeHand, the private Secretary (and paramour) of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I believe that Ms. LeHand was from upstate NY so they may have met in Middletown.
She received a sizable bequest from the estate of a woman named Catherine E. Carroll of New York. I wondered whether she went to Ursuline Academy either in Middletown or the Grand Concourse. Would anyone recognize that name?
Whenever Mother Angela visited her family, the rules of the Order were such that she had to be accompanied by another nun, called a "Discreet".
Susan
Thank you, Silvia, fr your kind words and thank you for reminding me of Mothers St. Mark, Antonia, and Miriam. I did not recall M. Miriam's name but I'll never forget those gigantic paper dolls she brought into class for our French lessons in First Grade!
Dear Mother Emmanuel! Did you know that she is also the author of our Emmanuel Spellers! AND in her later years, after our school was torn down, she moved to Mt St Ursula and gave private art lessons after school.
You mentioned the chapel and I can see the pink and blue trim on the molding around the entrance to the sanctuary.
Here's a mystery: When I was in high school at Mount Saint Ursula (mentioned in previous post), someone - I know not who - gave singing lessons from an upper floor of the original school wing. I remember standing outside, listening to a student practicing scales, which floated down to me in the gazebo and made any cares I had that day dissolve.
Curious how certain memories stick and others float away.
thanks, Sandar, for yuor lovely post.
I got a chance to go to Mt St ursula long after graduation because there was so way to go to UA at the Concourse!!! Our class had some reunions at Mt St. Ursula.Mother Emmanuel gave art lesons? That's amazing. Wish I could have gotten some of them. I loved h Fench class. I would have loed to tll hr that for myfirst tie in Paris I kept telling my partner that -- "don't worry, I can speak French." The truth of it was that the only word I remembered was fromage (for cheese).
Dear Susan, thank you for your additions to our memory trove. I'm afraid I don't know who Catherine Carroll might be. Also, I'm a bit confused about who inherited the estate from her. Was it Mother Angela, in which case the Ursulines, or Missy LeHand?
I do remember the nuns always traveling in pairs whenever they left convent grounds but did not know the term "discreet" applied in that way. How interesting!
Does anyone remember celebrating Mary on Mayday with a procession and garden party? We played maypole and other singing games on the front lawn, while the parents watched from the wrap-around porch of the convent. As I recall it was the only time we were ever allowed on the front lawn.
"O Mary! we crown thee with blossoms today,
Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May..." Can you still hear the melody?
Joan said.....
I attended the Ursuline Academy from 1949 to 1951. I remember being housed in the, I believe, original old Antibellum Mansion
which was exactly that, an old mansion. It had apparently been converted with a dormitory on the second floor and lavatories which were in a closed in area and there were tubs also in there where the good sisters would give us our baths. We were only little girls, probably only first and second graders.
We had big grounds on which there was a grotto and also a huge play yard where the sisters (we referred to them as Mother)
would take us out, we would all hold hands from one side of the yard to the other with a sister in the middle, we would walk back and forth singing songs. We were all boarding there at the time, I do remember playing Maypole and singing games in that same play yard. I also remember May Crowning and singing "O Mary! we crown the with roses today, Queen of the roses, Queen of the May..." yes, I can still remember the melody.
Does anyone remember getting their report cards in the evening with our little white gloves on. We would receive our report card with our right hand, hold our uniform skirt with our left and curtsey also saying "Deo Graci,thank you Mother.
My years at the Ursuline Academy were some of the Best years of my life, I will never forget.
Joan said.....
I attended the Ursuline Academy from 1949 to 1951. I remember being housed in the, I believe, original old Antibellum Mansion
which was exactly that, an old mansion. It had apparently been converted with a dormitory on the second floor and lavatories which were in a closed in area and there were tubs also in there where the good sisters would give us our baths. We were only little girls, probably only first and second graders.
We had big grounds on which there was a grotto and also a huge play yard where the sisters (we referred to them as Mother)
would take us out, we would all hold hands from one side of the yard to the other with a sister in the middle, we would walk back and forth singing songs. We were all boarding there at the time, I do remember playing Maypole and singing games in that same play yard. I also remember May Crowning and singing "O Mary! we crown the with roses today, Queen of the roses, Queen of the May..." yes, I can still remember the melody.
Does anyone remember getting their report cards in the evening with our little white gloves on. We would receive our report card with our right hand, hold our uniform skirt with our left and curtsey also saying "Deo Graci,thank you Mother.
My years at the Ursuline Academy were some of the Best years of my life, I will never forget.
Joan said...
I attended the Ursuline Academy from 1949 to 1951. I remeber being housed in an old Antibellum Mansion. It was indeed and old Mansion which had been, I believe converted to house several first and second grade boarding students. Our dormitory was on the second floor which also had a large glassed in area where the tubs were and where the good sisters would bathe us and get us ready for bed and hear our prayers.
I remember we had a large play yard where the sisters used to take us out to after dinner so they could exercise us. We would all line up across the play yard, hold hands with a sister in the middle and we would walk back and forth. I do remember playing Maypole there and singing songs in May, There was also a Grotto on the grounds.,
In May, we also had the May Crowning, singing "O Mary, we crown thee with roses today, Queen of the roses, Queen of the May, O Mary, we crown thee..." Yes I still remember the melody.
Does anyone remember receiving their report cards in the evening wearing our little white gloves. We accepte our report card with our right hand, holding our skirt with our left and curtseying saying "Deo Graci, Thank you Mother.
Those were the 'good old days' and, some of the Best years of my life.
The Ursuline Academy on the Grand Concourse, I was constantly trying to get down those steps on to the street. The good sisters decided they had to watch me on Friday afternoons and, they did, they watched me like a hawk.
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