The first high school in SSND American history, Institute of Notre Dame, founded in 1847 by Mother Theresa, was land-locked in the city of Baltimore. In April, 1871, with the vision of creating a country campus, Mother Mary Weinzierl, one of the original pioneers, bought 33 acres of prime land on North Charles Street, one and one-half miles outside of the city. She paid $10,000 down, and took a mortgage for $16,400. From Germany, Mother Theresa approved the purchase.
Sister Ildephonsa Wegman, directress of IND, worked with an architect to capture her vision on paper: a brick building five stories high, with a basement and an attic, crowned with a tall tower that had three large windows on each side, giving an unprecedented view of the countryside. The building, with wide corridors and many windows, was to be positioned at the apex of the undulating campus. The architect estimated the cost at $80,000. The work began.
Mother Caroline walked through the building in December, 1872 when the outer structure was finished. She was very impressed, but she admonished Sister Ildephonsa for the wide corridors. A few days later, the architect raised the projected cost $100,000. In February, the architect told the sisters that the building would cost $150,000. Great consternation arose. It was too late to turn back. The congregation took out a loan. They trusted and dared.
But the daring wasn’t over. Just imagine this: In April, to acquire a spring of excellent drinking water, the sisters purchased another 6 2/3 acres on the northeast end of the campus for $10,323; they mortgaged the building for down payment. Hearing that a fast-drivers’ club planned to buy the mansion on 22 acres of contiguous land south of their campus, the sisters borrowed again in June, 1873, and bought Montrose for $45,000 to protect their campus. Trust and dare.
By that time, the sisters had decided that the new school would have its own identity and be named Notre Dame of Maryland. They trusted in
God that new tuition revenue would stabilize their financial situation.
On Saturday, September 20, 1873, the sisters moved into the new building and prepared to open the school on the following Monday. That Saturday night, they lit all the gaslights in the new building, and the sight of all the lights on the hilltop brought carriages from near and far. From these visitors, the sisters learned of the previous day’s Black Friday, the beginning of the Panic of 1873. The results became clear to them when the school opened, and only 63 students came. By the end of the year, they had 96 boarders and five day students. This enrollment was not equaled for the next 10 years.
Mother Theresa, fully aware of the debt problem, and trying to encourage her sisters who were so far away, wrote, “We think that God has the wisest plans” for the indebted building.
From a shaky beginning, through some difficult years, Notre Dame of Maryland grew and eventually flourished beyond expectations. Beginning as a high school, it soon became a Collegiate Institute. Along the way, an elementary school was added. Then, in 1895, as students had progressed to collegiate studies, the school was officially chartered as College of Notre Dame of Maryland. In 2011, the College, now offering graduate programs, became Notre Dame of Maryland University.
The first item on every financial meeting agenda beginning in 1873 was “the debt.” The debt, with interest, amounted to $350,000 in total. In 1892, 19 years after the endeavor started, the sisters made the final payment to close out the debt. To mark this achievement, they tore down the wooden arch bearing the name of the school at the Charles Street entrance, and replaced it with a metal arch bearing gold letters over a stone gateway. Also, they demolished the “rickety wooden front steps” on the tower building, and replaced them with steps of granite.
Can you imagine the depth of the trust? Can you conceive of the height of the dare? In today’s dollars, the debt would equal 7.3 million dollars.
This history reminds each of us of the power of God hovering over the works of God; it inspires us to believe more deeply that anything is possible when we trust and dare. In every aspect of our lives and our ministries, let us reinvigorate the fire of our sacred heritage, and continue to trust God and take risks with confidence.
Kathleen Feeley, SSND
