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| History of Visitation, St. Paul, Minnesota
During the 1800’s, the Mabels, and Mamies, and Maes who attended St. Paul Visitation boarded in a deep-red castle-like brick building on Robert Street or traveled daily by carriage or electric trolley to school. There were about sixty young women, aged six to eighteen, about half residents and half day-scholars, about half Catholics and half Protestants. The girls wore bustled silk dresses, hats and gloves for chaperoned excursions (to concerts, plays, and an ice cream parlor), and black Balmoral (whatever that meant) skirts and tailored shirts for classes and lawn tennis.
They studied Catholic doctrine and practice; algebra and geometry; physiology and astronomy; literature, rhetoric, and orthography (spelling); had examinations “from time to time”; and did not usually aspire to graduate or go to college. The earliest advertisement for the school (August 17, 1873, in the Pioneer Press) had promised: “The course of instruction pursued at this institution furnishes all the branches of a thorough English education, also such accomplishments as languages, music, drawing, painting, needle work etc. The study of music is particularly attended to, and a special care is taken to instruct the pupils thoroughly in each department.”
Teachers were twenty or so Visitation Sisters, established in St. Paul in 1873. The Sisters lived in a frame house which had come with the property purchased in 1881. The house had been enlarged by attaching their original convent from Somerset Street, transported the half-mile through the streets. Students were welcome to worship at Mass or Office with the Sisters whose building was poor and austere compared to the school.
The school building boasted a high turret and cupola, a grand auditorium-cum-study hall, a refectory with linen cloths and potted palms, a dormitory for the little girls with white-draped cubicles for modest dressing, private rooms for the young ladies stuffed with pillows and paraphernalia, and classrooms that resembled over-stuffed Victorian parlors. Edison had produced his light bulb, but this building was equipped with gas pipes; obtrusive electric wires were strung up later. Brochures of the period hinted discreetly at indoor bathrooms: “The building is projected on a large and liberal scale. Every exaction of the most thorough sanitary science has been satisfied in its plumbing, ventilation, and lighting.”
Board and tuition for a semester equaled $125. Day scholars paid $20-$50 per semester; depending upon their class level. Music, languages, art, and embroidery cost extra.
The 200 Margarets, and Marys, and Marjories who were at the 720 Fairmount “Vis” in the 1930’s and 40’s came by car or Street car in their navy suits, white peter pan blouses, lisle stockings (which were somehow considered to be character-building in a day of silk, rayon, or even nylon hose), and saddle shoes or penny loafers. Students took religion; four of the “solids’: math, English, social studies, science; and electives: art, home ec, music, typing, taught by thirty-some nuns. They went on to college, usually St. Catherine’s or the University of Minnesota. The boarding school closed and with it ended the excitement of smuggling food by day students to boarders.
Visits to the chapel in white veils were a usual part of study periods. All learned from Sister Mary Helen the precise way to pronounce Latin, and many appeared at the early Friday morning Missa Recitata where they presented hosts to be consecrated and received later; afterwards, they ate bread toasted on one side only and named for the event.
There were a multitude of school activities: CSMC, St. Patrick’s Day Operetta, Epiphany play, Winter
Carnival, drama with girls in men’s frock coats, annual “prize essay contest,” Record business and literary staffs. Christmas meant listening to “Why the Chimes Rang,” read by Miss Kellett, and mounting risers with the entire student body to form the ranks heaven. ‘Sports” had evolved from imitation of friezes on the Greek Parthenon directed by Miss Grace B. Whitridge to playing basketball. around four padded pillars.
Tuition was $100 per semester or $200 per year.
The Megans and Melissas and Matthews of the 1980’s and ‘90’s arrived by car or bus to Mendota. Heights in their oxford shirts and navy vests to study under a lay faculty numbering about sixty. Out- of-uniform days came often, with students paying a dollar to some charitable cause to choose baggy sweatshirts, and jeans.
The mote than five hundred students took six or seven basic subjects, with options of A.P. courses and a full offering in fine arts. They did research by surfing the Internet, typed assignments on computers, and faxed in their homework when absent. French and Spanish V were offered; sometimes one or more students took a course or two at CSC or the U of M.
The physical plant continued to grow to accommodate the numbers and the needs. Soccer players enjoyed a state-of-the-art field; tennis enthusiasts used new courts; basketball and volleyball players enjoyed a new gym. Upper and Lower School libraries and tech centers held banks of computers, and every classroom has at least one Macintosh.
The young people wore snappy shirts, shorts, sweatpants, and letter jackets in red and white for gym classes and when they chose among twelve inter-school sports. They competed at the state level in mock trials; they built sets and acted with cadets from St. Thomas in productions to rival off-Broadway; they volunteered service with many human resource agencies.
Tuition ranged from $6,000 - $9,000 depending upon the level.
The saying goes: ‘Plus’ça change...” “The more things change, the more they stay the same.’ One hundred twenty-five years have passed since six Sisters boarded a steamship to come up the Mississippi. Visitation has always been based upon the spirit of St. Francis de Sales and. St. Jane de Chantal, Love of God is still in first place. An account about Visitation written one hundred years ago speaks of “teaching a girl to make her aspirations correspond with the designs of her Maker’. Graduates of the nineties have written:
“The atmosphere of the Sisters inspired me with belief in God”; “It is okay to accept God, to worship and praise God.”
Different vocabulary; same reality.
Among Salesian principles is respect for the individual. The young women of today speak of learning to respect diversity, of listening to other viewpoints, and of believing in oneself. The founders of Visitation taught a gentleness that carries strength. A brochure from the last century speaks of the “mild but firm government of the institution.” A contemporary student writes that the gentleness learned here will last a lifetime.
Graduates speak over and over of their freedom to make choices, reflecting the freedom of spirit so dear to Francis and Jane. A further hallmark of Salesian spirit is a sense of balance, which calls for coordination of all parts of a person, physical as well as mental and spiritual. Old brochures spoke of “healthful exercise in the salubrious air.” Today, the young women comment about the value of sports, and their education to be complete persons.
The friendship of Francis and Jane, embedded in their deep love of God; has given a strong thrust to community and friendships that have endured. One might smile at the naive language of the old catalogues which speak of “self control and obedience... necessary for happy intercourse with ... schoolmates.” Today’s staff and students speak of being supported and experiencing concern for everyone, of the Christian love and respect behind each relationship.
Today, as in 1873, Visitation learning is Non Scolae Sed Vitae — not for school, but for life!
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