Remembering St. Vincent's College
St. Vincent's College was founded in 1838 overlooking the Mississippi River in Cape Girardeau, MO.
The college was an outgrowth of St. Mary's Seminary previously founded near Perryville, MO in 1819 and when St. Vincent's was founded, St. Mary's became a preparatory school. A fire in 1866 destroyed some of the building of St. Mary's and the school was moved to Cape Girardeau and absorbed by St. Vincent's.
Prior to the Civil War, most students at St. Vincent's came from the south and roughly 50% were from Louisiana each year. Enrollment from southern states declined after the war and in 1866-67 only three students were from Louisiana.
In 1893 the theology department moved to St. Louis and was renamed Kenrick Theological Seminary while the classical and commercial departments remained on the campus in Cape Girardeau. College enrollment remained a struggle and after 1910 the mission was changed with St. Vincent's serving as a college-preparatory high school until it closed in 1979. The grounds served as an evangelization center until they were purchased by Southeast Missouri State University. The university then moved its Earl and Margie Holland School of Visual and Performing Arts to what has been called the River Campus.
You can read more about the history St. Vincent's in a 1986 article for the Vincentian Heritage Journal, "Saint Vincent's College and Theological Education," by John E. Rybolt C.M., Ph.D.
The application for the National Register of Historic Places is also available online with more details on the property and history.
Comments
Post a Comment