An Historical Guide to the Campus: Saint Mary's College

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An Historical Guide to the Campus: Saint Mary's College An Historical Guide to the Campus: Saint Mary's College

L. Raphael Patton FSC

Saint Mary's College of California

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Historical Guide

to the

Campus

Historical Guide

to the Campus

Saint Mary’s College

First edition, 1982

Second edition, 1986

Third Edition, 2000

Completely revised, 2008

Updated and revised, 2015

Moraga

2019

Dedicated to the memory of

Brother Virgil Celestine

-English Professor-

known with some justification as

“Spike”

Although most of the deceased College Brothers died in hospital,

some did end their days on the campus.

At Mission Road: Brothers Dimidrian 1869

Udgerian 1876

Urban Gregory i 1881

At the Brickpile: Brothers Fredlemid 1890

Zenobius Lewis 1893

Julius of Nicomedia 1896

Cianan 1898

Erminold Walter 1902

Pirmian 1902

Venantius Cyril 1903

Sabinian 1909

Bermund Joseph 1911

Utho Justian 1921

At Moraga: Brothers Florinus Peter 1933

Agnon Francis 1934

Urban Gregory ii 1935

Arator Justin 1947

Vincentius Leo 1954

Ulpian Jerome 1964

Vendelinian Julian 1981

Gary William 1994

Thomas Clarence 2015

May they rest in peace.........

Introduction. This little treatise is not meant to be a real “history” of the College

(that is best left to serious people with a supply of footnotes), nor is it

meant to be a definitive source of what is best called “trivia” (there are

other and better sources). All we hope to provide here is an immediate

reference to the entire campus for new students and campus visitors.

There are surely one or two items somewhere within to amuse or to

interest any visitor of any age and with any connection to the College.

We need to thank the sources of our tradition, contacted over the years we

have spent on the campus since 1959, including:

Brother U Albert, “the Prince”,

Brother W Matthew, the historian of the College,

Brother V Dennis, longtime librarian and archivist,

Brother T Mel, President for 29 years,

Father Patrick LaBelle, dean and chaplain,

Brother Sabas Dominic, faculty member,

Brother T Michael, former president, and

Brother Virgil, “Spike”.

Also, many thanks to those who have written books and notes:

Brother Clair Stanislaus, historian of the Institute,

Brother Angelus Gabriel, historian of the US Brothers,

Mr Randy Andrada, historian of SMC football,

Mr Ronald Isetti, historian,

Brother Stephen Carl, meticulous researcher, and

The Saint Mary’s Historical Society.

And thanks to those who read and tried to correct the manuscript:

Brother V Dennis,

Brother S Dominic,

Brother Charles, historian

The book is arranged alphabetically and thus there is no index;

that is, it is all index.

AGENO PARK. Marked by a statue of

Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin,

this residential complex of Ageno

Halls started with MICHAEL E,

dedicated on 11 September 1988 in

memory of Edward S Ageno (1943-

1997) a member of the Class of

1963 and son of the donor, .

There followed MARJORIE DAVID and

FERDINAND & CAMILLE, for the wife

and the parents of the donor, dedicated on

12 September 1992. With unusual

imagination, the bureaucrats have dubbed

them Ageno A, B and C. After Mr Ageno’s

death, the family had EDWARD (North

and South) erected at the back of the valley.

That dedication was 10 September 2000.

For many years what is sometimes called

the “canyon” was the campus dump.

ALBERT HALL. The main Library was

begun in October 1965 and

dedicated on 28 April 1968, but

only after a long, hard period of

construction.

The building floats on a pad set atop some

very soft ground. As a result real damage

was suffered in the 1989 Earthquake.

The three-story structure, in some unknown

architectural style, is home to the main

collection along with offices, reference and

the academic computer room on the ground

floor. The Bryant Collection of historical

films (named for faculty-member Byron

Bryant, who served on the staff at KPFA in

Berkeley and was known for his line

delivered during a lecture: “Dear Dido, the

whore with the heart of gold!”) and the

Wildenradt Theatre are on the second floor.

The college archives are on the third.

The LaSallian Library, a unique

collection of seventeenth-century

spirituality donated by former faculty

member Thomas Loome, is in what was

once the President’s Room, the scene of

many Trustees’ meetings. There is also an

extensive Newman Collection.

A large number of pieces from the

College’s art collection are scattered

around including busts of Fr Edmund

Moss, <32, former President Brother Mel

and Professor Henry Schaefer-Simmern

of the Art Department.

The building, named for Saint Albert the

Great (1193-1280), Dominican, Doctor of

the Church and patron of natural

scientists, is a memorial to Brother

Sylvester Albert, the President. Known to

the Brothers as “Black Al” to distinguish

him from Brother “Prince Albert”, he

died in a tragic highway accident in 1962

(see KORTH). The library data-base was

named “Albert”.

Just to the north of Albert Hall is what

might be called BRENDAN PLAZA, a

gathering point for students and named in

1996 for the indefatigable Brother Ternan

Brendan, who served for many, many

years on the faculty in mathematics and

the Integral Program. He also was editor

and publisher of a number of literary and

philosophical serials on campus. A bench

here quotes Plato: <Let no one ignorant of

geometry enter this place...”--a dream for

the admission requirements long held by

college mathematicians such as Brothers

Vigilius Dominic (known as “Buzz”) and

Ulbertus Alfred (see BROUSSEAU).

Another bench recalls the prolific ONeil

family of Sacramento, with at least three

generations of Gaels.

ALEMANY HALL. Named for the founder

of the College, Joseph Sadoc

Alemany, a Dominican and the first

Archbishop of San Francisco (see

MISSION ROAD), who died while

retired in Valencia on14 April 1888.

In 1978, after the old infirmary moved from

the area above the kitchen to the ground

floor of Augustine Hall, the space was

remodeled to house a group of faculty

Brothers. The operating room, dispensary

and sickrooms were replaced by a kitchen,

dining room and common rooms. In earlier

times, students confined to the infirmary

were able to attend mass in an upper room

behind the grille at the right side of the high

altar in the college chapel.

ALIOTO CENTER. Dedicated on 8 March

2015, this vast athletic facility is on

the west side of campus, covering

the site of GUISTO Field.

There is a complex of pools, a climbing

wall, two courts, free weights and a very

large installation looking like a stationary

Tour de France. Named for the late Joseph

L Alioto, 1937, attorney and former mayor

of San Francisco, the building was built

with help from Bernard Orsi, 1965, the

family of Raymond SYUFY and the

Aliotos.

ANNEXES. There have been several dim

corners of the campus going by the

name “The Annex”. Two were

erected “temporarily” during the

Navy PREFLIGHT period.

The wooden Art Annex once stood on the

rise above the Lake (see ASSUMPTION).

The Gym Annex was the ramshackle

structure adjacent to POPLAR GROVE. At

various times it was home to the

maintenance department, the POST

OFFICE, then student body offices, the

Integral Program, Hispanic Club

(MEChA), the Black Student Union

(BSU and CBS), the Brothers’ woodshop

and later a few offices for athletics.

The south end was known as the Gaol, a

social center for students during the 60s.

This annex was partly demolished in

1999 and the remainder used during the

construction of GATEHOUSE Hall. All

traces of it are gone today.

The Science Annex, a quiet secluded

wing at the back of the Brothers House,

once housed the print shop of Br Virgil

and the Brothers’ laundry room, then

during the 80s the campus architect’s

office, and in the 90s a few orphaned

faculty offices. In 2013 it was joined to

the new home of the Psychology

Department.

AQUINAS HALL. Built in 1928 as East

Hall, this dormitory was known as

Yorktown from 1942 to 1946. For

forty years the home of the

sophomore men, Aquinas was the

first dorm to be remodeled for the

female students in 1970.

The world’s first phone-booth stuffing

took place on the ground floor when the

Class of 1961 jammed in 22 men. The

photo in LIFE magazine was that of an

outdoor restaging of the event with a

borrowed booth. During the 80s nostalgic

students of the following generation

reenacted their fathers’ insanity.

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274),

Italian Dominican friar, philosopher and

Doctor of the Church, might very well

have filled a phone-booth by himself.

ARCADES. The arcades were designed in

1928 to link several buildings. The

Main Arcade is the covered

walkway running across the front of

the chapel.

On the left the North Arcade, the

administration wing from 1928 to 1992,

held the President’s Office, the Registrar

and the Business Office, as well as the

Main Parlour (the room in the middle with

a fireplace and french windows, to receive

guests). Several smaller parlours were used

by the Brothers to meet their students

because only the lay faculty were given

office-space.

The attic of the North Arcade, once filled

with stored paintings, the spooky African

collection as well as old academic records,

and complete with unexplained footsteps,

has always been thought to be haunted. It

now houses communications machinery.

For a period of three years, after the

bureaucracy moved into WEST and

FILIPPI, the North Arcade served as an

awkward collection of classrooms and

offices, and then was redone to house the

Academic Vice-President, the Director of

January Term and a few faculty. Arcade 1

remains as the unimaginative name of the

one classroom here.

On the right of the Chapel, the South

Arcade has housed a variety of college

services: originally the athletic department

and a faculty lounge that almost

immediately turned into the bookstore and

the POST OFFICE in 1929. Then came bits

of administration after 1945, and during the

60s and 70s, the print shop and the

Development office.

At the back, in a separate hallway a short

walk from the sacristy, was once the

LATIN QUARTER, a series of suites for

the campus priests. Today, this wing has

been remodeled entirely. The York

Classroom (see KORTH) is also here.

In 1999 the missing link in the arcade,

from Oliver to Ferroggiaro, was put in

place. The original plan to have the

arcades embrace the main quad on three

sides has nearly been realized, with the

addition of GARAVENTA and FILIPPI

Halls, and awaits the demolition of the

misplaced SICHEL restrooms.

A number of commemorative plaques

may be found in the Arcade at the

entrance to the Chapel. One on the left set

up by James Forrestal, Secretary of the

Navy, recalls the Pre-flight School, while

one on the right mentions the 13 000

cadets who attended from 13 June 1942

to 30 June 1946. A young aviator named

Gerald R Ford was on the staff. Another

recalls the 156 Saint Mary’s men who

served in World War I and the 1427 in

World War II. A plaque of St Junipero

Serra, set into the wall on the right side

during the Serra Day in 1934, is by

Douglas Tilden, who with Bernard

Maybeck helped design the 1915 Pan-

Pacific Exposition, and the Palace of Fine

Arts in particular. In 1999, a large panel

was set up to recall the many marriages

performed in the CHAPEL.

The space under the arcades was designed

for steam pipes and utility lines. Very

quickly this dim, mysterious area was

said to be haunted and the final resting

place of “Indians” or of deceased

Brothers. The many access ports were

used by roaming students on explorations

late at night. The large storage lockers in

the crypt beneath the kitchen connecting

with what was called the “Catacombs” also

attracted amateur sleuths. Years of effort by

the janitors have resulted in all the openings

being sealed or locked tight. The ghosts are

left to themselves.

ART’S BAR. Behind the old station of the

SACRAMENTO NORTHERN in

Moraga was a sort of tavern and

hotel. Although a mile or so from

campus this watering hole played a

larger or smaller role in the lives of

many students for many years.

During Prohibition, a shot or two of 150-

proof rum might possibly have been

arranged in the back room. When the

collegians arrived in 1928 Art Fleuti was

the manager and for quite a while after

Repeal in 1933 it was “Art’s Bar”. For legal

reasons the sign on the sloping roof was

altered to “Art’s Barn”. Devoted Gael fans,

Art and Aunt Helen, the actual owner,

drove to the Cotton Bowl in 1939 in a

Model T.

During the 60s, Brother Ralph, the Dean,

regularly provided Art with a list of

students who were of legal age; he also

would appear at the bar late at night in his

robe and collar to round up his no longer

thirsty charges. Later when Helen died, Art

was forced out, the place sold and once

again the name altered, this time to

“Moraga Barn”.

Art finally died and now the old place is

hardly recognizable as the nocturnal refuge

for collegians, walking both ways in the

dark after some clever ruse to circumvent

“lights-out” and the room-check in the

dorms.

In 2007 after a rebuilding with some

sense of preservation, the building was

transformed into yet more offices.

ASSUMPTION HALL. At the beginning

of the Navy’s occupation of the

campus in 1942, this wooden

“temporary” was thrown up to

house the College and to serve as

dormitory for the student Brothers

and the civilian students (only

seventy of them in 1944).

Immediately the dorm was stuck with the

all too accurate label “Splinters”, until it

was named for the Assumption of the

Virgin, proclaimed in 1950 by Pius xii.

The same year and still richly deserving

its nickname, it was the “Scholasticate”,

home of the student Brothers. In 1970,

their former common room on the

northwest end became the computer

center, and gradually the graduate

business program moved in. In 2008

Graduate Business moved on to Rheem

and campus security arrived in

Assumption.

With the closing of the Scholasticate, the

rest of the building was generally empty

for some years, although used for a few

summer programs. By 1997 it was

returned to its original state as a

dormitory. It boasts of a new elevator and

serves as housing for science and honor

students.

In the back, now a wasteland of parking

and haphazard storage for cast-offs and

unused equipment, once stood the Art

ANNEX, built in 1942 as the college

classroom building with a grand view of

the Lake.

After the war, the south end of the Annex

was taken over by the peripatetic art

department, while the balance was used by

the student Brothers. In 1979, with the

artists moving to their new quarters in

CORNELIUS CENTER, the Annex was

turned into a storage shed. Finally, in June

1995 it was razed. Yet remaining, but now

serving as another storage shed, is the old

Shop behind Assumption Hall, built in

1948 by the student Brothers using the site

of and materials from the 1942 student CO-

OP and athletic facilities.

AUGUSTINE HALL. One of the original

dorms, West Hall (not to be

confused with the more recent

WEST), housed the freshmen until

1975. During Preflight days its was

Enterprise.

After 1960 it was commonly derided as the

“Zoo” although at first the reference was

simply to the ground floor where life was a

bit primitive. At one time the campus radio

station (see KSMC) was located on this

“garden level”. The north end of the Zoo is

McELLIGOTT CLINIC, named for Lizz,

longtime resident nurse at the college and

terror of malingerers, who retired in 1978.

An oft-told story tells of a beleaguered

resident assistant in Augustine during the

70s awaking one morning to find his door

firmly bricked shut by his own residents,

who had worked all night with mortar and

trowel.

The top floor or attic, another spot on

campus with a long reputation for being

haunted, was at first divided into large

spaces (as was the top floor of AQUINAS

HALL) devoted to club meetings, the

ASSMC and student publications. With an

increased number of residents single rooms

were put in the top floor as well as a

recreation room. Later the offices of the

Communication Department were moved

up there for a short time. Closed for

several years, the hall was remodeled for

over $1 000 000 and reopened in 1977.

Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430),

African bishop, was a Doctor of the

Church known for his Confessions.

BECKET HALL. On the hillside above

JUSTIN HALL and opened to

students in 1968, Becket and

More occupy the site of the

wartime dental unit.

These two little dorms were the first to

bring apartment-style living to the

campus: suites included a living room and

bathroom common to several bedrooms.

The togetherness was enhanced by paper-

thin walls. They also heralded an

unrestrained march of beds up through

the dumps (see AGENO).

Thomas More (1478-1535), Chancellor of

England, was martyred under Henry viii.

Thomas Becket (1118-1170), Archbishop

of Canterbury, was martyred under Henry

ii. Some jokers at one time called these

dorms “Tom-Tom”.

BELLS. It is remarkable that no bell was

ever hung in the massive 120-foot

tower at Moraga (but see

KORTH.)

On 30 October 1949, the President, Br

Austin, and Bishop James ODowd

blessed a new set of electronic chimes,

bringing the relentless hourly

Westminster tune to the campus. The

instrument has been replaced several

times, and now tapes of various hymns

and other music may be played at any time

of the day or night.

The Bells of Saint Mary’s has been used as

the alma mater for a long time. But, like the

name GAELS, it was the result of an

accident. At the 1924 USC game in Los

Angeles, the USC band director found

himself at a loss when it was time to

introduce the visiting players with their

fight song. They didn’t have one! With

some wit, he scrambled his forces to play a

piece of some popularity, written by Furber

and Adams in 1917.

It caught on! By the way, in this game the

Saints held off the Trojans with a goal-line

stand during the final seconds, and won. As

a result, the USC coach “Gloomy Gus”

Henderson was forced to resign, while the

Bells of Saint Mary’s went home to

Oakland to stay. Not until 1945 did the

Bells get an Oscar, with Ingrid and Bing.

BENILDE HALL. Tucked in behind the

kitchen, this little building with a

hundred uses was meant in 1928 to

house the Carmelite nuns working

as “culinary assistants” in the main

kitchen. They also did some

laundry.

A cloistered arcade, now demolished,

connecting the convent to their work

allowed the nuns to go back and forth

unseen. The heavy work proved to be not

very edifying and the Carmelites withdrew

to Monrovia after a few years.

For a time after 1931 the former convent

was the Scholasticate, and in 1950 the

Brothers of Mary used it for their young

Brothers studying at Moraga until they

moved to Dayton in the late 60s. Then it

was the overflow Scholasticate when

ASSUMPTION was full and later was the

pre-Novitiate for the Brothers. During

1984 several of the faculty Brothers were

stuck here due to a shortage of space. The

Alumni Office and Education moved in

during 1986.

While the main CHAPEL was undergoing

renovation in 1998, the charming little

Benilde chapel, which had been overrun

by the bureaucrats for yet more meetings,

was returned to service for the liturgy. In

1999, it was devoted to showing classic

films. Finally in 2004 the entire building

was demolished in one afternoon,

preparing the site for an expansion of

RONCALLI and, of course, a parking lot.

Brother Benilde of Sauges (1805-1862)

was a French schoolteacher and principal;

the old convent was named for him in

1948 after his beatification; he was

canonized in 1967.

BERTAIN. (see REDWOOD).

BOOKSTORE. The bookstore started out

in 1929 in the space designed as

the faculty lounge (now the

YORK Classroom), and then

moved to the “Co-op” on the

ground-floor of De La Salle Hall.

In 1973, the bookstore migrated into the

new FERROGGIARO student union,

where it occupied what had been built as

the Officers’ Mess in 1942. This large

room (now part of the CASSIN food

court) had become the reading room for

the Library (see DRYDEN) after the war,

and later was the campus theatre (see

LEFEVRE).

In 1999, with a redoing of the Union, the

bookstore was moved into what had been

the BRICKPILE snack-bar and the

basement beneath for the text books.

BRENDAN. (see ALBERT).

BRICKPILE. On 13 August 1886, Brother

Bettelin with support from the

second Archbishop of San

Francisco, for $22 000 purchased a

seven-acre plot bounded by

Broadway, Webster, 30th and

Hawthorn at the foot of Piedmont in

Oakland.

The negotiations were undertaken

discreetly by a layman, due to the fear that

the violently anti-Catholic American

Protective Association might block the sale.

The new property allowed the Brothers to

plan a move out of San Francisco into the

rapidly growing East Bay, leaving behind

the damp fogs of Mission Road.

Architect J J Clarke drew up plans for one

massive five-floor modern Renaissance

block having a 75-foot facade 190 feet long

parallel to Broadway—it was quickly

nicknamed the “Brickpile”.

With fifteen thousand attending and 21

years to the day after the arrival of the

Brothers at the College, the new campus

was dedicated on 11 August 1889 by

Archbishop Riordan. Remarkably enough,

a Jesuit, Father Joseph Sasia, President of

St Ignatius College, gave the address,

noting:

We hold there can be no true

education which is not founded on

the principles of religion.

On the same day, the College asserted its

independence of the Archdiocese of San

Francisco with the formation of the

Corporation, a board holding title to the

College. The students arrived at the new

campus the next month.

On 23 September 1894, with the Visitor

on a business trip to France and the newly

appointed President away in Martinez, a

freak fire started in a garbage chute and

gutted the building. The seven-alarm

response was nearly useless because the

OFD was hindered by old hoses and a

shortage of men. The picturesque blaze

brought out all of the citizens in those

days before radio and TV news.

Extraordinarily, no students, staff or

firemen were lost. The discouraged

Brothers and students spent the night on

the lawns and made plans for a return to

the decaying campus on MISSION

ROAD until repairs and a rededication

allowed them back to Oakland in January

1896.

The earthquake of 18 April 1906 did

some damage to the College, but classes

remained in session. However, on 7 May

1918, a second great fire swept through

the building; this time the fire department

was forced to struggle with low water-

pressure. The president, Brother Urban

Gregory, announced:

Twice before have we been

knocked down, but we have come

up smiling and we will meet this

blow with renewed determination

to go on.

The students went home and returned in

the fall to a rebuilt College. Nevertheless,

in 1927, with the growth of downtown

Oakland and the traffic on Broadway, it

was decided to move the College again

(see MORAGA).

When the building on Broadway was

demolished in 1928, a lot of dynamite was

used to bring down the fifteen-foot thick

foundation walls dating from 1888. Today

little remains of the Brickpile, the site

covered by auto-dealers and medical

buildings. The windows in FENLON Hall

are from the Oakland chapel; a building

stone (see PATIOS), a large boulder on the

back athletic fields (see RAHILL), some

library books and a number of bricks lining

patios and paths also are left from the

second campus. It is said that a few private

homes in Oakland were built with bricks

salvaged from the abandoned site.

On 25 April 1959, State Landmark No 676

was placed on Broadway between 30th and

Hawthorne.

From 1937 to 1948, The Brickpile was the

campus literary magazine.

For some years the snack-bar of the Student

Union, where the BOOKSTORE is now,

was called the “Brickpile” and one of the

bricks remains enshrined in the arcade wall

outside.

BROTHERS. Fratres Scholarum

Christianarum (FSC) means

“Brothers of the Christian Schools”,

the Christian Brothers in the US and

the De La Salle Brothers in the rest

of the world.

By 1817, the first three Brothers in the US

had shown up in Saint Louis from Paris,

and in 1837 the first permanent North

American House was established in

Montreal, followed by Baltimore in 1853.

The founding group for California came

through the Golden Gate on 10 August

1868, having sailed from New York aboard

the Ocean Queen on 16 July, crossed the

isthmus by train and come up the coast on

the Montana. They were Brother Justin

(1834-1912), the first Visitor of the newly

arranged District of San Francisco, a

charismatic Irishman of great

administrative ability who had been

trained in Montreal and New York, and

later served as President of Christian

Brothers College in Memphis, as well as

Visitor of New York and of Ireland;

Brother Cianan (1833-1898), a dignified

Irishman who later founded Sacred Heart

College in San Francisco and Christian

Brothers School in Sacramento, and then

served as President at Mission Road;

Brother Genebern (1844-1907), a fierce

Swiss disciplinarian; Brother Sabinian

(1832-1909), an Irish-born teacher of

religion; Brother Gustavus of Mary

(1832-1923), another Irishman raised in

America, who eventually returned to the

East and a long career in Washington and

Baltimore; Brother Emilian (b 1844 in

Germany), a teacher of Latin and Greek,

later withdrew from the Brothers; Brother

Dimidrian (1844-1869), the Benjamin of

the group, died of consumption within the

year; and Brother Adrian Denys, an

American who withdrew from the

Brothers upon arrival in San Francisco,

returned to New York and later served

there on the state supreme court and then

as Mayor William Jay Gaynor from 1909

to 1913. Arriving in the City a bit later

was Brother Pirmian (1829-1902),

another German and the first Director of

Novices in California;

A Brother who is often thought of as an

original is Agnon Francis (see

PHOENIX), a New Yorker, who in fact

arrived at Mission Road in 1877 and

remained a fixture for years, perhaps the

most enthusiastic athletic fan in the

history of Saint Mary’s; he died at Moraga

in 1934, the only man to have served on all

three campuses.

In 1680 the Brothers were founded by John

Baptist de La Salle (1651-1719), a priest of

Rheims, who invented popular education

and the modern elementary school, using

textbooks written in the vernacular to be

read by all the students in the class. He was

concerned to set up a group of religious

educators bound together by vows and yet

completely independent of the priesthood

and ecclesiastical duties. To this day, the

Brothers are governed by a “Brother

Visitor” (not a provincial) responsible for a

geographical region or “District”,

distributed among several “Houses”

governed in each case by a “Brother

Director” (not a prior or rector).

The District of San Francisco New Orleans,

now headquartered in Napa, includes the

College, high schools in California,

Oregon, Washingon, Denver and across the

southwest, a conference centre, several

group homes for boys and educational

centers in Oakland, Tucson and Tijuana.

When the Brothers join what they call the

“Institute”, they are given the “robe” with

the “rabat” (the old French clerical collar).

Before 1966, they also took a religious

name, usually with two parts one of which

was that of an obscure saint (explaining

things like “Julius of Nicomedia”,

“Udgerian Albert, “Xenophon Cyril” and

“Dorotheus Anselm”). Since then the

Brothers tend to retain their christian name

and surname.

The so-called BROTHERS HOUSE has

been home to the faculty Brothers since

1928. It stretches from the main kitchen

around to the main arcade near Galileo,

on two floors, running behind the chapel

chancel and including both ALEMANY

and FENLON Halls.

BROUSSEAU. Brother Alfred (George

Brousseau) was on the faculty

between 1930 and 1988. He

served as professor of

mathematics, then as Visitor of

the District of San Francisco, and

ended his days as archivist. At its

rededication on 30 March 2007,

just a few days after Alfred’s 100

birthday, the building was named

for him.

At first named “J C Gatehouse” in 1998

by the mendacious “anonymous donor”,

this very large science building was put

up to house Chemistry and Biology. On 5

October 2000, the original dedication was

to “all the Brothers” on campus. During

the summer of 2005 the name incised

over the door was removed.

An extensive plantation of western plants

and desert varieties spreads along the

west side. Nearby are the sites of

POPLAR and PINE GROVES which

were cleared from the construction site.

CAFÉ LOUIS. (see GUISTO).

CALLOWAY GROVE. A mysterious

and arcane designation now

erased from the campus. (see

POPLAR). It has been renamed

Boschetto, centred on the spiral

sculpture (said be represent DNA)

next to BROUSSEAU.

CARMELITES (see CHAPEL and

BENILDE).

CASSIN CENTRE. Built in 1999 and

named for donors Brendan Cassin,

once chairman of the Board of

Trustees, and his wife Bebe, this

area includes the CAFÉ LOUIS, the

food court/patio adjacent to

DRYDEN and the newly added

missing link in the ARCADE. A

spanish fountain sits in the middle

of the food court.

Nearby, HOFFMAN GARDEN, donated by

Contra Costa developer Kenneth Hoffman,

is outside the french doors of DRYDEN. It

showcases two bronze gazelle, gifts of

Professor Henry Shaefer-Simmern, and

once provided a strangely inappropriate

spot for a bronze Pietà, dating from at least

1937. At one time this peripatetic statue

could be seen in the garden of BENILDE,

then under the oaks next to Dante Hall, and

later in the garden of the Brothers’ House.

In 2019, the statue was resituated in the

South Patio.

CATACOMBS. (see ARCADES).

CHAPEL. Dedicated in 1928 to “Mary, of

whom was born Jesus”, the chapel

is indeed the focal point of the

campus in several respects.

In 1863, Archbishop Alemany named the

college (as well as Saint Mary’s Hospital

and his cathedral) for Mary under her title

the Immaculate Conception, a dogma

proclaimed in 1854. The patronal feast is

thus 8 December and was celebrated at the

College for years.

In 1930, the east window, installed high in

the chancel, represented instead the

Assumption, due to some unexplained

rearrangement. This led people to take the

patronal day as the 15

of August (when, of

course, no students are present on

campus). Oddly enough a parallel switch

occurred back in San Francisco: when old

Saint Mary’s on California Street was

abandoned in 1891, the new cathedral on

Van Ness was dedicated to the

Assumption of Mary, as is its successor

on Geary, the third cathedral.

The 120-foot chapel bell tower is

modeled after that of the cathedral of

Cuernavaca (see BELLS), while the 55-

foot-high nave is a scaled-down copy of

the cathedral of Monreale in Sicily. The

chapel and indeed the entire campus are

set in Mission-Renaissance style as

(see MORAGA). The reredos, behind the

high altar, is typical of this grand style.

The new building was dedicated by

Edward J Hanna, Archbishop of San

Francisco, on 5 August 1928.

In 1989 the Loma Prieta earthquake

provided an convincing argument for

strengthening the structure. In that quake,

with the Brothers at vespers in the side

chapel, John the Baptist took a header off

the reredos, damaging the statue and

making a dent in the stone altar steps.

By 1998, some major and many, many

smaller donations made possible a

complete overhaul of the nave. A

traditional spanish tile floor replaced the

mustard-yellow shag carpet left from a

modernization of the interior during the

70s. The 1928 pews were refinished and

the heads of the aisles pushed through to

the side chapels. The old confessional

recesses were converted into frames for

art-pieces and the choir loft redone to

allow the installation of a new ORGAN.

In the ARCADE outside, over the three

doors, are plaques of Mary and Joseph with

Jesus in the centre, created by local artist

Douglas Tilden. The entrance vestibule,

beneath the loft, contains a xvii-century

Flemish Assumption donated by Richard

Gump of the San Francisco merchant

family. On the right is the memorial wall

listing the benefactors of the chapel.

Just inside the central door to the nave is

the stone baptismal font. In the nave itself,

in the north aisle, a niche is devoted to a

stained glass of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the

patroness of the Americas. The door leads

to the Holy Family PATIO. Continuing on

the left, the arched niche in the north aisle

at the front holds a Madonna and Child

carved in wood about 1450, a gift of

Gertrude Shaefer-Simmern, and considered

the patroness of the College.

At the end is the Brothers’ (or La Salle)

chapel, where the original 1928 tabernacle,

flanked by two stone angels from the

original altar-rail, is now located. Here as

well are a sixteenth-century Madonna

holding grapes and, hanging above the

tabernacle, a fifteenth-century Italian

crucifix of leather and wood. In the double

niche is a diptych of Saints Francis and

Catherine supervising two nuns at prayer.

The main altar is in memory of Marie

Doran and of Fr Edward Doran, Class of

1879. The ornate piece features the

Immaculate Conception at the top, Joseph

on the left, John the Baptist on the right,

and the Virgin and John the Divine at the

foot of the central cross.

In the south aisle are a bronze statue of

Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin,

created by Bruce Wolfe and a shrine to

Saint de La Salle, the Founder of the

Brothers and Patron of all teachers.

Another door leads out to the south

PATIO. At the head of the south aisle is

the Mystical Marriage of Catherine of

Siena, a xix-century micro-mosaic by

Mulusandi.

On the right is the Carmelite chapel, set

off by the two-story wooden grille, once

used by the cloistered Carmelite sisters

living in what later became BENILDE

Hall. A list of their community may be

found on the wall. Here also is a xvii-

century Franconian crucifix. The wooden

carving of the five holy Brothers on the

back wall of this chapel was done by

sculptress Rosa Estabanez. At one time,

sick students confined to the infirmary

were able to attend mass in the upper

room behind the grille.

The stained glass was created by H.

Oidtman of Linnich-Aachen and installed

in 1930 (making the chapel considerably

darker). High in the clerestory the life and

titles of Mary are represented, in the

aisles the life of Saint de La Salle, the

Founder, and over the main altar the roses

in the empty tomb mark the Assumption

of Mary. Several smaller modern

windows in the side-chapels, including

three of Christian Brothers: Saints Miguel

of Ecuador, Benilde and de La Salle, were

donated in the 80s by Father Edmund

Moss, Class of 1932.

CLAEYS HALL. This two-story

residence was named in honour of

Linus Claeys, ‘32 (1909-1987)

and his first wife, Edna, and

dedicated on 22 July 1984.

The site is that of the old rifle range for

the Navy. The building continues the

march of dorms up through the former

campus dump.

On 25 October 1987, CLAEYS SOUTH

HALL was dedicated just up the hill. There

was no “Claeys North” at the time.

The large reception room in SODA Centre

is also named for the CLAEYS, Linus and

second wife, Ruth.

COLLEGIAN. The campus newspaper was

formed as a literary magazine in

October 1903 by a band of students

in Oakland, and continued under the

moderatorship of Brother Agnon

until 1914, when Louis LeFevre,

after his graduation, took over. It

became a semi-monthly tabloid in

1922 with Brother Z Leo directing.

In 1925, the staff of the “annual” split from

the newspaper and the first proper yearbook

was put out. Only in 1928 at Moraga did

the paper become a weekly under the

direction of Brother Virgil. The offices

were for a time on the first floor of Galileo.

For many years the paper was mailed out;

on a few occasions The Collegian was

confiscated by the President to spare the

alumni some unpleasantness in print.

COMMON. The nondescript quad bounded

by Aquinas, Justin and Mitty Halls

was improved and replanted in 1980

using student donations.

The Common has provided space for

barbecues and graduation parties for twenty

years.

This entire corner of the campus was the

site in 1942-45 of the gigantic

Independence Hall (see PREFLIGHT).

CO-OP. The student snackbar at the

BRICKPILE had been called the

“pie shoppe” for a time. Then, in

the 20s, it was generally called the

“Co-op”.

After the move to Moraga, an addition

was stuck onto the back of DE LA

SALLE Hall and this became the Co-op,

a sort of soda fountain, adjacent to the

textbook store. It was pulled out, moved

and and renamed, after the construction of

FERROGGIARO.

CORNELIUS ART CENTER. Dedicated

on 4 October 1979, the new art

facilities replaced the vintage

1942 location (see ANNEXES).

The new centre, behind the Chapel and

next to the gallery (see HEARST),

includes studios, classrooms and offices.

In addition, there is a multi-purpose

lecture room in the space occupied for

many years by the gallery (see KYRAN).

A bronze Falcon Boy (1954), a copy of a

romanesque Madonna (1320) and a

charming pink elephant by Beniamino

Bufano stand in the enclosed patio.

In 1901, the Brickpile catalogue under

Engineering listed courses in drawing, so

that by 1906 when Brother Cornelius was

assigned to the faculty, there was a bit of

room for art in the curriculum. With

teutonic thoroughness, this single-minded

man took on the establishment of a

complete program. He at the same time

became an expert on William Keith, the

California painter and friend of John

Muir, and wrote the two authoritative

volumes on Keith.

After arriving at Moraga, overcoming the

resistance of several faculty who viewed

art as less than academic, Cornelius

managed to find space wherever he could

for studios and for the rapidly growing

collection of paintings. Before the war he

was on the first floor of Galileo; in 1946 he

occupied the north end of ASSUMPTION

and, in 1950 when the student Brothers

relocated there, the operation jumped to the

so-called Art Annex overlooking the lake.

But Cornelius wanted a real gallery and

turned his attention to a largely neglected

area behind the Chapel. In his seventies he

started on the task of making adobe bricks

to construct the space as a typical

California artifact. Students guilty of

infractions of dorm rules were sent over on

Saturday mornings to help in this operation.

A few of these bricks may still be seen

along the side of Hearst Gallery—a little

memorial to the old man and his perhaps

unwilling co-workers.

In 1953 his new room was in operation as

Keith Gallery (later renamed by Brother

KYRAN “Saint Mary’s Gallery”), and an

ambitious set of plans for a complete art

facility surrounding it was drawn up.

Unfortunately, in 1962, Cornelius died in a

tragic highway accident, that also killed

Brother Albert, the President, and Brother

Julius.

Cornelius himself was a serious artist and

occasionally one of his small landscapes

may be glimpsed hanging inconspicuously

and generally unnoticed.

COTTRELL (see RAHILL).

CROSS OF VICTORY. Directly behind the

campus on the crest of the hill is a

large cross originally of Philippine

mahogany erected during the

Spanish Civil War (1936-39)—a

war that also contributed a large

number of Brother martyrs. In

1984, a vandal with a chain saw

nearly did in the cross.

In May 1927, the students from the

Brickpile managed to paint an large “M”

on the flank of this hill in time for the

groundbreaking. Until the 40s, an “SM”

stood on the slope below the cross, said to

mark the grave of “Slip MADIGAN” by

campus wits. The hillside also bears a

number of trees planted in the late sixties

as part of an ecologically-oriented rite

replacing the jolly old hazing of freshman

initiation.

DANTE HALL. Dante Alighieri (1265-

1321), Italian poet, wrote the

Divina Commedia.

One of the two original classroom

buildings, Dante housed the Arts and the

Business Departments for many years,

and on the first floor what academic

administration there was. It had been

called “Hall A” until January 1932 when

the students and the chancellor, Brother

“Black” Leo, undertook the naming of all

the buildings for catholic figures from the

arts and sciences: Dante, Galileo,

Aquinas, Augustine, De La Salle. As late

as 1937, however, De La Salle in

particular was referred to as Center, so

old ways die hard.

During the war, Dante was the carrier

Lexington for the PREFLIGHT sailors.

After a remodeling in 1984, the neglected

attic, now the third floor, became faculty

offices. The Academic Vice-President’s

Office was on the first floor after 1964,

until it was moved over to the North

ARCADE.

A scheme by Professor Schaefer-Simmern

and his wife to establish a history of art

motif for each classroom was started; the

neglected remains may be seen in several

rooms.

Famous faculty members in Dante include

Brother “Spike” Virgil who inspired several

generations of writers with thorough

tongue-lashings and Brother Wilfrid

Matthew with his half-page history quizzes

every morning after the daily prayer to that

“little Jewish girl after whom this college is

named”.

DE LA SALLE HALL. Center Hall on the

1928 plans and Ranger during the

Preflight period, the senior dorm

was named for Saint John Baptist de

La Salle (1651-1719), the French

priest who founded the Christian

BROTHERS and was named Patron

of all Teachers by Pius xii in 1950.

On the ground floor were once many of the

student services: a barber shop presided

over by Jack, complete with chairs and

pole, the CO-OP (bookstore and snackbar),

billiard room (later the TV room in the 50s

and 60s), the dean’s office and in the

northeast corner the ASSMC offices

(during the 50s and 60s). For many years,

doling out odd jobs to penniless students,

the State Employment Office was located in

the old billiards room on the left.

In the middle the grand lounge, with french

windows and a large fireplace, was used for

recreation, formal and informal gatherings,

lectures and concerts. During the 70s De La

Salle Lounge and the adjoining very stylish

lobby were ruined and turned into Dilbert

cubicles. The room and lobby were brought

back from the dead in the Spring of 1999 as

HAGERTY Lounge.

The fourth floor of De La Salle had a

small chapel that was abandoned in the

60s to make more space for bedrooms.

For many years the rooms on the second

floor over the central doors were given to

the student body president and the senior-

class president.

A popular story relates how a local cow

was coaxed up to the top floor by some

residents, only to resist all efforts to get

her down the four flights again.

De La Salle Quad, flanked by the three

1928 dorms, was reconstructed in 1976,

with a donation by Mary THILLE.

DELPHINE LOUNGE. When the

FERROGGIARO student union

was built in 1973, the area

between the then bookstore and

the Brickpile was designated a

common room with card tables

and a loft/balcony, as a pale

replacement for the De La Salle

Lounge.

Portraits of Fred and Delphine

Ferroggiaro (1893-1965), his first wife,

were here for twenty years. In 1999 when

the lounge was made over into a

unicultural centre, located until then in

the Gaol (see ANNEXES), the paintings

were slipped into the stairwell of the

student office wing. A mosaic in memory

of Brother Roger KYRAN remains over

the fireplace in the lounge.

DORMITORIES. See AGENO,

ASSUMPTION, AUGUSTINE,

AQUINAS, BECKET, CLAEYS,

DE LA SALLE, JUSTIN,

MITTY, SIENA,

TOWNHOUSES.

DRYDEN HALL. This space, intended in

1928 to be part of the dining and

kitchen area, served instead as the

makeshift library, after a shortage of

funds made the building of the

planned library on the Main Quad

impossible.

Br Urpasian Clement (d 1957) was librarian

in 1928 and stayed on, gaining a reputation

for having read every new book as it came

in and being able in those pre-computer

days to locate nearly any reference material

sought by students. The library was

relocated temporarily to FENLON Hall

during World War II.

In 1968 after the Library moved to the new

ALBERT Hall, this area became a reception

room and special dining room, at which

time Brother Michael, President, named it

for the Catholic poet John Dryden (1631-

1700). During the 90s, Dryden was

incorporated into the student food service

in parallel with Oliver Hall, as had been

originally intended (see CASSIN).

After 1946, the library reading room (the

site of the 1942 Officers’ Mess) opened off

the south corner of Dryden. From 1968 to

1973 this large airy room was temporarily

the college theatre (see LEFEVRE). Then it

was home to the BOOKSTORE and POST

OFFICE, as each continued to wander

around the campus. In 1999, Dryden and

the space left by the post office and

bookstore to the south became the indoor-

outdoor food court, CASSIN Centre, and

later the Pub.

DUMP. Fed by a spring on the hillside, the

charming seasonal creek runs past

AGENO Park and the CLAEYS,

through what was once the dump. It

ends up in San Leandro Reservoir.

Just south of Claeys Hall was the Navy’s

rifle range, and nearby the old theatre (the

band hall of PREFLIGHT days). The now

vanished dirt road through the area started

near Siena Hall, ran up past the theatre,

wound through piles of discarded

furniture, broken concrete slabs and miles

of rusted pipe, to the cattle gate, climbed

to the site of the OBSERVATORY, and

thence over the hill and down to the

farmhouse (long gone) and barn at the

very back of the campus.

ENTRANCE. The present entry to the

campus dates only from 1942 (see

GREGORY) and is officially at

1928 Saint Mary’s Road. The sign

was put up in 1980 by faculty

member Donald DePaoli, in

memory of his parents, Lorayne

and Angelo, and is dedicated to

the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The string of redwoods along Saint

Mary’s Road is due to the work of

Professor Henry Shaefer-Simmern, who,

offended by the barren stretches at the

front of the campus, planted trees during

the 70s. When the College was unwilling

to tend them the stately old man himself

carried buckets of water out to them. The

lone survivor of the depredations of

Christmas-tree hunters from the

neighbourhood was joined by new trees

in a landscaping of the sports fields

during 1990 and 1991.

At one time during the early 70s, a

security kiosk was built on the right side

of the entrance road, only to be burned

down by students unhappy about

something or other done to them by what

were known as the Rent-a-cops. The

gatehouse and Security office now stand

in the centre of the entrance road.

FENLON HALL. In the BROTHERS

House the semi-detached Common

Room, modeled after the octagonal

chapter room of a Spanish

monastery, was built in 1928 and is

joined to the Brothers House by a

enclosed gallery.

The high windows were brought from the

chapel at the BRICKPILE. Four plaques on

the interior walls are replicas of the three by

Douglas Tilden over the doors of CHAPEL,

with a fourth of de La Salle.

At one time, the faculty Brothers had tiny

offices surrounding and opening onto the

large vaulted central room where they

might meet together; the arrangement was

called “The Caves”. During the war, the

library was set up here. When the little

offices were abandoned during the early

70s, the space was remodeled to allow for a

kitchen, workrooms and a huge fireplace.

Outside on the southeast may be found the

Brothers backyard,“Eric Park”, named for

Brother Vitus Eric, professor of Physics. In

the middle is the now falllen figure of a

brown bear carved from a local redwood

trunk.

The name Fenlon, applied only in 1978 at

the suggestion of Brother Viator Maurice,

recalls “Moraga Joe” Fenlon, once Brother

Zeticus Joseph ii, Visitor in 1928 (see

MORAGA). Joseph served at the Brickpile

and is also remembered for having raised

the money for Alumni Gymnasium and the

indoor pool erected on Webster Street in

June 1909. He also founded the APGU

Honour Society in 1906; it lasted into the

70s before dying of neglect and the

conviction of the faculty moderator at the

time that it was all too “elitist”.

FERROGGIARO CENTER. The student

union was dedicated on 23 June

1973 and named for a major

donor, Fred Ferroggiaro (d 1982),

former chairman of the Bank of

America and the last remaining

associate of A P Giannini, the

founder of the Bank of Italy. He

helped to save the bank’s assets

during the 1906 Fire. The other

major donor, anonymous at the

time, was George McKEON.

The two-story main wing was remodeled

and rearranged in 1999 (see HAGERTY).

It houses Student Affairs, Housing, the

dean’s office, the Associated Students,

the career center, the radio station (see

KSMC) and student publications.

Also parts of the Center are the

Bookstore, DELPHINE Lounge and

CAFÉ LOUIS, a snack bar, replacing the

Brickpile. Also included in Ferroggiaro

Centre are LEFEVRE HALL and the

large quad.

FILIPPI HALL. Frank J and Olivia C

Filippi were major donors. This

building, together with WEST

HALL, was dedicated on 2

February 1992.

The working half of the administrative

complex houses on the first floor the

Registrar, the Business Office, Personnel,

Enrollment and the College switchboard,

all of which had been jammed into the

North ARCADE since 1928.

On the second floor are the President’s

office as well as Filippi Lounge. In the

basement is found Info Tech and Media

Services.

Near the main entrance is a bench donated

by the remarkable OConnor family that

provided members of the Classes of 1916,

1956, 1981, 1984, 1985 and 1986.

A reconstruction of Filippi and WEST was

begun in 2008. Offices were rearranged.

There is a second Filippi Hall, the so-called

academic one, opened in 2007. It is situated

on what once was the tennis courts and then

the parking lot for AUGUSTINE Hall.

With 38 300 sq ft there is a lot of room. On

the first floor eight classrooms and four

study rooms have been donated by various

alumni. On the second floor is the

KALMANOVITZ School of Education

(qv).

FOUNDERS ROOM. (See RONCALLI)

FREITAS (see TOWNHOUSES).

GAEL. The current name for the college

teams has an odd history. In 1892

the football club was formed when a

group of students purchased 15

uniforms and started playing at the

Brickpile; they called themselves

the “Saints” (but see PHOENIX).

The very Catholic name carried over to the

rugby club when it was set up in 1899.

However, in 1926 after a 26-7 football

victory over Cal, Pat Frayne of the San

Francisco Call dubbed the team the

“galloping Gaels and Gauls”, a tongue-in-

cheek tribute perhaps to the 1925 Captain,

Pat ORourke, and the 1926 Captains, Leo

Rooney and Larry Bettencourt. The

shortened version was adopted almost

immediately and, with the continuing

exception of the baseball team, the other

clubs, including finally the women’s, took

on the name Gael. A thankfully short-

lived attempt in 1936 was made to name

the freshman squads the Gaelets!

The now discontinued College yearbook

had been The Gael since 1929. Before

that the annual was called the Collegian.

From 1903 to 1923, it was merely a more

elaborate edition of what was a

newspaper-magazine. The annual failed

to appear in 1924, but the 1925 Gael

came out in hardback format. Frequently

in earlier days, The Gael contained essays

and poetry, in addition to campus photos

and portraits of the students and teams.

The 1929 Gael yearbook staff claims to

have gone to Coach Madigan for his

permission to use the team name that he

had copyrighted in 1927! (See RAHILL

CENTER).

No one has ever been quite clear about

what a “gael” might look like and so a

sort of celtic/roman warrior was conjured

up. Several heroic drawings by students

in the 60s portray an armed fellow on a

not very Irish horse. Actually a “gael”

mounted on a very real horse had been a

fixture of football games years before.

Footballer “Cowboy” Smith tried—

unsuccessfully as it turned out—to ride a

horse into the stadium before a game.

GALILEO HALL. Built in 1928 as Hall B

and matching Dante directly

across the main quad, the science

building was the carrier Saratoga

to the U S Navy, and had been

named in 1932 for Galileo Galilei

(1564-1642), an Italian scientist

and astronomer.

Before its move to the Gym Annex and

then to FERROGGIARO Center, the

POST OFFICE,, was located in the space,

now offices, to the left of the arcade

entrance of Galileo. The biology

department and what there was of geology

were on the main floor, but Biology moved

to SICHEL and then to BROUSSEAU...and

geology disappeared.

The first academic computers on campus

were located on the first floor of Galileo.

During the late 60s, mathematician Brother

Alfred, while pioneering the Fibonacci

Association, also started programming

classes, using Hollerith cards. By the early

70s programmable calculators and some

stand-alone terminals were set up in a few

“closets” in Galileo.

The upper floor with Chemistry and

Physics was the land of odd smells and

strange equipment. G201, an impressive

classroom with banked seats, overlooks the

main quad, having survived the renovation

of Galileo in the 70s, which removed the

ancient dark paneling, the steel lockers

along the hallways and the wonderful brass

hardware.

An item from the 1928 design is the

Donovan window, a lever-system invented

and patented by the campus architect

allowing the three leaves of the classroom

windows to be opened together or

separately. Nearly all have been removed

during various renovations.

The enormous attic was once full of surplus

science equipment, and was home to the

secret club rooms of the Knights of

Columbus during the 50s and 60s. The

space was turned into third-floor offices for

faculty in the make-over.

On the lawn between Galileo and

BROUSSEAU stand a gnomon and

meridian plinth, donated by Father Edmund

Moss and cut by East Bay Monuments

after a design of ancient Greek

astronomers. At solar noon these tools

measure the time and the angular

elevation of the Sun. This spot is 37E 50'

29" N and 122E 06' 33" W.

GAOL (see ANNEXES).

GARAVENTA HALL. Just north of

Dante (on the site of the faculty

parking lot), the hall was

dedicated on 10 October 1996,

named for Mary Candida

Garaventa, donor, and contains

classrooms, faculty offices and

several large computer rooms.

The family name is attached to the soccer

field (see RAHILL), recalling the father,

Silvio. Incidentally, the Honourable John

Garaventa of Concord, a graduate in the

Class of 1926, served on the faculty at

Moraga in 1928.

GATEHOUSE HALL

(see BROUSSEAU).

GEISSBERGER. Dr Louis J Geissberger,

1953, donated the little white

observatory on the hill at the back

of the campus. It is now a

memorial for his wife Norma,

who died in 2005.

The family, including sons Dr Marc,

1988, Michael, 1989, Dr Jeffrey, 1990

and John, 1992, was involved in the

project. It was dedicated on 27 June 2004.

A 16-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope

sits on a robotic mount allowing remote-

control. Also available are a CCD

camera, photometer and spectrograph.

Nearby is the weather station and solar

telescope, and further down the hill is the

observing pad allowing a large group to use

six telescopes at once.

GREGORY HALL. In 2008, the hitherto

unnamed building was named for

Brother Urban Gregory ii (1877-

1935), leading to the name BUG

Hall.

Brother Gregory served as president and

director at the College and was named

Visitor of San Francisco in 1927. He

oversaw the move of the College from

Oakland to Moraga.

Hidden away on the north side of the

campus, this building was built in 1979 to

house the corporate headquarters of the

Brothers’ District of San Francisco, which

had been located in the Donald Rheem

mansion, now Casa de las Flores, in

Moraga.

When in 1989 the Brothers moved their

offices to Mont La Salle, Napa, the building

became home to the Education Department,

which then transformed itself incredibly

enough into a “School”. With the

completion of the second FILIPPI Hall, all

of it was moved again, now as

KALMANOVICH SCHOOL.

After some reconfiguring, Gregory became

the location of Counseling and another

landing for Info Tech.

The site blocks the original 1928 entrance

road, which entered the campus near the

foot of Rheem hill and angled in, crossing

the SACRAMENTO NORTHERN tracks

on a wooden bridge, to arrive at the corner

between ASSUMPTION and WEST Halls.

In 1942, the Navy in a burst of tidiness

moved the entrance road to its present

symmetrical location on the axis of the

Chapel and Main Quad.

Gregory is near where the Naval Officers

Club stood. The club was dismantled in

1946 and removed to Orinda where it still

serves, now as a church hall.

The large parking lot in front was the site

of dozens of open-air basketball courts

for the sailors and later the students. It

was also used for the nighttime bonfire

rallies held before home basketball

games. After campus construction in

1928 the railroad left the freshmen with

enough wooden ties to built a stupendous

20-foot-tall pyre topped by a “Bronco”

for a pre-Santa Clara game rally; it must

have burned for days— and Santa Clara

lost 20-7.

GUERRIERI. (see TOWNHOUSES).

GUISTO FIELD. The diamond on the

front of the campus, home of the

PHOENIX since 1928, was named

in 1965 for Louis Joseph Guisto,

1916, who for many years was the

manager of the student CO-OP

and bookstore, as well as the

naval small stores during the war.

Lunch at Louie’s was a day-

student tradition at Moraga.

Guisto had been an All-American rugger

in his senior year, played football and is

remembered for his incredible 103-yard

interception and return against Cal in

1915. He later played pro baseball and hit

a home-run the first time he stepped to

the plate in the majors. This triple-threat

athlete was actually born Louis “Giusto”

but was renamed by the Brothers on the

faculty, who found the Italian handle did

not work on Irish palates, thus changing

“Joos-toh” into “Ghee-stoh”.

In 2014-2015, with the erection of ALIOTO

Center, the baseball field was moved

several hundred feet over to a location

bordering the entrance road.

At the entrance to the diamond is a

memorial stone to the eponymous Lou,

where one may read that the true name of

the field is “Phoenix Diamond” (see

PHOENIX). Another boulder recalls Joseph

Oeschger, 1914, who single-handedly

pitched the legendary 26-inning 1-1 tie for

the Braves against the Dodgers (then called

the Robins) on 1 May 1920, the longest on

the books. Yet another is in memory of

Harry B Hooper, 1907, a Hall of Famer

who played in the majors, including 12

years on the Boston Red Sox. He and Duffy

Lewis, another SMC lad, formed two-thirds

of what is still acknowledged as the greatest

Boston outfield.

The snack-bar, Café Louis in CASSIN

Centre, also recalls Louis Guisto. It has

migrated from what is now the textbook

store, and earlier from a back room of the

old BRICKPILE, in what had been the

MISSION ROAD Room.

HAGERTY LOUNGE. Located on the

ground floor of DE LA SALLE, this

large room is set up for meetings

and presentations. It now includes a

small kitchen.

Originally a room on the second floor of

Ferroggiaro Center, devoted to the alumni

and decorated with historical SMC photos,

was named for a former faculty member.

In 1999, the space was taken over for

offices and Hagerty translated to the site

of the former DE LA SALLE Lounge,

sometimes called the Student Lounge. It

had been used for plays, concerts and

lectures as well as countless social events

since 1928.

James Leo Hagerty (1899-1957)

graduated in 1919 and later was Professor

of Philosophy. He was the major force

behind the development of the World

Classics (now Collegiate Seminar)

program in 1942, and worked with

Brother Sixtus Robert to set up the

Integrated (now Integral) Program in

1955. In fact, as early as 1940,

encouraged by Brother “Prince” Albert,

Hagerty was advocating the St John’s

curriculum in meetings with faculty and

administrators.

In 1942 Mortimer Adler was on campus

lecturing on the Great Books in

Assumption Hall, contributing to the

Moraga Quarterly and collaborating with

Hagerty. By a stroke of fate, Hagerty was

able to discuss the program with Charles

Wilburn of St John’s College, who as a

Navy man was at the College during

Preflight days. Thus, the very heart of

Saint Mary’s, the seminar, was the chief

legacy of this devoted faculty member.

The late Professor John Wellmuth held

the Hagerty Chair in Philosophy.

For many years, Hagerty moderated the

ancient campus Honour Society, Alpha Pi

Gamma Upsilon, founded by Brother

Zeticus Joseph at the Brickpile.

Extraordinarily enough, Hagerty appeared

at nearly all campus events, attended

athletic games and ran the scorer’s table

at many of them.

HEARST GALLERY. The <new’ gallery

was dedicated on 6 October 1977,

replacing the old one, now the

location of the KYRAN Room,

damaged by fire in 1975.

The permanent collection includes many

paintings by William Keith, as well as the

extensive college holdings of sculptures,

icons and paintings. A study of Keith, done

by Douglas Tilden in 1931, is in the gallery.

Tilden at the same time did a bronze plaque

of Father Serra, now just outside the Chapel

in the Arcade, and a series of medallions in

FENLON Hall and over the entrance doors

of the CHAPEL.

There is a small gift shop at the entrance.

The gallery was enlarged in 2013 and

renamed the Saint Mary’s Museum of Art.

William Randolph Hearst, Jr (1863-1951),

publisher and unwilling model for Citizen

Kane, born the same year as the college,

was commemorated with funds from the

family foundation.

HOFFMAN. (see CASSIN).

JUSTIN HALL. The prestigious senior

dorm was dedicated in 1961 and

promptly nicknamed the “Justin-

Carlton”.

Ordway Lounge on the ground floor was

once comfortably furnished by private

donation and today continues as a rather

less elaborate common room. Much of its

earlier lustre having faded, Justin provided

freshmen housing and later became an all-

purpose dormitory. The Beach, an adjoining

volleyball court, was put in in 1972 by the

residents.

The great Brother Justin, third President

of the College in San Francisco and one

of the pioneers of 1868, after suffering a

humiliation as a result of the Latin

Question, died in New York in 1912.

Justin was responsible for setting the

College up as an undergraduate

institution. A high school in Napa is

named for him. On campus he has a

shabby memorial in JUSTIN GROVE on

Bollinger Canyon Road, the site of

several graduations, including that of

1927, and countless private parties. The

oak grove, accessible at the end of a long

arm of college land stretching past the

stadium, has decayed beyond recognition.

KALMANOVITZ School of Education.

Located on the second floor of the

academic FILIPPI Hall, the

School was renamed for Paul (d

1987) and Lydia (d 1994)

Kalmanovitz on 24 January 2008.

A very large gift from the

Kalmanovitz Foundation allowed

the construction of the new

facilities.

KECK. (see KORTH).

KORTH TOWER. The south ARCADE

presented a problem as the

campus grew during the 80s. New

buildings were being considered

for the back of the campus, and

better access from the front was

needed.

Since 1928 the route from the Main Quad

to the back was a narrow, twisting

passageway running along the south side

of the Chapel, around the sacristy and

through the confused area opening onto

the Infirmary and the Brothers House.

Traffic became congested during a change

of classes. After some discussion, a slype,

or tunnel, was pushed through the centre of

the arcade block, passing through the

LATIN QUARTER and into the patio

behind. A second slype was cut under

ALEMANY Hall.

To top off this odd construction, a little

tower, donated by Howard J Korth, was

raised over the arcade wing to serve as the

home of the ancient Saint Mary’s bell. This

one-ton monster hung originally at Mission

Road. After the College moved to Oakland

and the archdiocese sold the San Francisco

property, the bell was taken to nearby Saint

John’s parish. For eighty years it served the

church and finally ended up sitting on the

sidewalk of St Mary’s Avenue in front of

the church.

During 1987, the East Bay Scholarship

Fund providing encouragement and

funding, negotiations with the archbishop

and the parish were opened. Unaware of all

this, the students were feverishly planning

to hijack the bell. They had surveyed the

situation, estimated the weight, hired a

truck and worked out the time of night with

least street traffic. The day chosen for the

carefully planned heist was the day that the

EBSF announced their arrangements for the

legal acquisition of the bell. At last it was

returned—legally—to the College on 10

October where it sat quietly on the ground

as it had for so long. At the dedication of

the new South Arcade on 8 October 1997,

the bell was again at home high in a tower.

Also in the south ARCADE is found the

KECK SEMINAR CENTER, built with

funds from the W M Keck and the Irwin

Foundations. Here are the offices of the

Collegiate Seminar program (the new name

for the World Classics program established

in 1942). Part of this complex is the

YORK CLASSROOM, donated by the

Warta family in memory of Brother Gary

(1945-1994), a graduate of the

Integral Program and advocate of the

seminar program (see AGENO).

Passing along through the patio toward

the back of the campus, the slype cuts

between the Brothers House and the

dining rooms through the site of the

President’s Dining Room (1928-1967).

This now vanished room also was the

Captain’s mess for the commanding

officer during the war.

Here are several memorial plaques: one

(1994) to the graduates who gave their

lives: 16 in World War i, 22 in World

War ii and 1 in Vietnam, and, facing, an

older one (1963) recalling the three

Brothers, Sylvester Albert (President),

Fidelis Cornelius (art professor) and

Venefridian Julius (Spanish professor),

who all were killed on 29 January 1962 in

an accident on an icy section of Highway

50 near Placerville.

KSMC-FM. The campus station started

out as KHSM-AM when a license

was granted to the radio club. The

first broadcast, on 1 March 1948,

opened with “Hello from 880!”.

The signal was delivered through

the AC electrical system (carrier-

current broadcasting) from the

studio on the top floor of DANTE.

In 1951, with a real transmitter built using

spare parts, the station went on the air at

880 on the dial.

In 1955 the studio relocated to the ZOO.

KFRC, San Francisco, donated a kilowatt

AM transmitter weighing six tons, which

in 1957 was moved to the campus with

some difficulty. A brief period of

imaginative leadership included remote

athletic broadcasts, concert shows and a

duo-channel stereo link-up with KGO-AM.

In 1961, the station manager changed the

call letters to KSMC, and only bad luck

resulted: the transmitter collapsed, the

moderator resigned and they were off the

air. A short reprieve with a 100-watt signal

abruptly ended in 1963. For many of these

years, Brother Benedict of the Physics

Department was the moderator and resident

electronics expert.

Only in 1971 with a new license and a

group of dedicated students did the station

come back, this time at 89.5 MHz on the

FM dial--and all of 10 watts.

In 1976 AUGUSTINE Hall was cleared and

completely renovated, so the station moved

again. The new studios in FERROGGIARO

Centre were set up in 1977 with funding

from Mr James Harvey of Transamerica.

On 15 March 1982, the station boosted its

output to 1000w, enabling the <Oasis of the

Airwaves’ to reach a bit further than the

campus and a handful of neighbouring

Moraga kitchens. After 1983 remote

broadcasts from athletic events returned,

and since 1984 it all comes in stereo.

A sister station, KSMR-FM is on the

campus at Saint Mary’s University in

Winona, Minnesota.

The history of the College’s involvement in

radio broadcasting in fact goes back to the

30s, when a SMC program and Universal

Saint Mary’s Night were regularly sent out

from Bay Area stations KYA, KTAB, KRE,

KFRC and KROW, as well as NBC and

CBS.

KYRAN ROOM. In 1928 this space

behind the Brothers House was

meant to serve the student

Brothers, but it remained empty

and unfinished; it was used for

volleyball during the winters from

1937 to 1941.

The famous campus tailor, Fred Tiffany,

moved his shop and bedroom into the

shell during the war before finally settling

into the ZOO.

This area was rebuilt in 1953 as the art

gallery (see CORNELIUS). It and the

patio behind were named finally for

Brother Roger Kyran, 1952, instructor in

art after his assignment to SMC in 1954.

He had resurrected the ancient Rugby

Club during the 60s and played the game

during the first year.

Two of Kyran’s large works and a self-

portrait once hung in the Kyran Room.

His monumental Crucifixion may be

found in FILIPPI and his Job is in

ALEMANY.

He was killed in a head-on collision with

a confused drunk on US 101 in Marin on

16 May 1969. Several areas of the

campus are said to be haunted by Kyran’s

spirit.

In an strange rearrangement, this useful

classroom was suddenly turned into an

exercise space.

LADY OF THE OAKS. This secluded

shrine of Mary, beyond BERTAIN

Grove, about halfway to JUSTIN

Grove, has been visited by

generations of students plagued by

personal and academic problems.

Earlier during the 30s and 40s, she was

called the Lady of the Grove, and Our Lady

of Grace in 1948. Vandalized during the

70s, the statue of the Virgin was replaced

by Fr George Edmund Moss, 1932, who

with a plaque also memorialized war

veterans (see VETERANS) from the

College.

The wooden sign “Lady of the Oaks” was

originally lettered by Brother CORNELIUS

to serve “Keith Gallery”, then altered by

Brother KYRAN to read “St Mary’s

Gallery”.

LAKE LA SALLE. The now vanished 14-

acre lake (identified on some maps

as Saint Mary’s Lake) extended

from behind the Powerhouse and

Art Annex to Bollinger Canyon

Road at the foot of the Banks, the

limestone bluffs on the east side.

In 1927 the lake was created by the

damming of Las Trampas Creek to provide

campus irrigation and to serve the sewerage

treatment plant. The Spanish las trampas

refers to the traps of elk hunters. During the

construction of the dam, it is said, 24 Indian

skeletons were uncovered.

About 1930 after the construction of the

new pool, the students were told that for

insurance reasons swimming in the lake

would no longer be allowed . The lake was

used for boating until it silted up during a

period of neglect in the 60s; then it filled

with willows. A bit of the old sewer plant

remains and the dam itself still stands with

its three spillway gates, unused for fifty

years.

LAS TRAMPAS. (see LAKE LA SALLE).

LATIN QUARTER. (see ARCADES).

LEFEVRE HALL. In 1973, the present

auditorium, and now part of the

FERROGGIARO Centre, replaced

the temporary theatre in the large

room now the indoor food court in

CASSIN Centre.

The original LeFevre Memorial Theatre

however was a relic of the earliest days at

Moraga, a very unstable wooden structure

standing on the right of the road near

what is now the north end of Claeys Hall.

It had been the band room during the war.

That musty old barn was demolished in

1975—it had not seen an audience since

the sixties. In particular, it had been used

for the production of Ibsen’s Dollhouse in

1949, Caine Mutiny Court Martial and in

1962 of a homegrown opera, Infidelio.

Louis Felan LeFevre, 1913 (1892-1948)

was professor of history, and together

with Brother “Black” Leo and James

Hagerty produced many dramas and

passion plays, some they themselves had

written. LeFevre also served as athletic

manager, running the operation in the

early days of Slip Madigan at Oakland.

The great stage directors at Moraga

included Yale Meyer, who put on a long

string of serious dramas, and his

successor, Arnold Wolfe. Another

character involved with drama beginning

in 1955 was Brother Veronius Matthew,

beloved professor of English, who

directed many productions backed up by

the authority of his ever-handy cane.

Annually during the 60s, the College gave

the Genesian Award, named for the

patron of actors, Saint Genesius. Many

Hollywood celebrities were hosted at gala

ceremonies in OLIVER Hall.

LIBRARY (see ALBERT).

MADIGAN Gymnasium. Only after the

students had been a year in Moraga

were additional funds found

allowing the gym and adjoining

pool to be built in 1930-31. It was

merely “The Gym” until it was

named for Coach Madigan by 1937.

Notorious for its less than adequate size, it

was dubbed the Moraga Bandbox. Students

brought noisemakers to games and drove

the competition and the officials to

distraction. In the sixties, hundreds of large

plastic trumpets were the final insult: the

WCAC forced the College to hold its home

games in the very spacious Oakland

Auditorium, the Richmond Auditorium and

then in the Coliseum, until McKEON was

opened on campus in 1978.

The old gym was the site of a 16 March

1948 broadcast of the “Bob Hope Show” on

NBC. In 1963, William F Buckley made a

stylish presentation and, in the early days of

R&R, the Jefferson Airplane did a concert

here.

The pool was roofed over by the Navy in

1942 but this <temporary’ roof had to be

removed in 1977 due to its deterioration

from the humidity. The entire area was

redone in 1984; the dilapidated locker

rooms and showers were remodeled the

next year. Only in 2015 was the antique

pool in Madigan replaced by the pools at

ALIOTO, and it was filled in.

Edward P “Slip” Madigan came to the

Brickpile in 1921 from Knut Rockne’s staff

via a coaching job in Portland, and

immediately built an enduring legend. At

first, both in Oakland and at Moraga,

Madigan was himself nearly the whole

athletic department, coaching baseball,

basketball and football right around the

year, in addition to teaching duties. But

football was to be his game!

Madigan took over a football team, the

Saints, that had lost 127-0 to Cal the

previous season! A lot of work had to be

done. For the 1925-1926 seasons, he

showed a record of 17-2-1, taking down

not only Cal, but Davis, Nevada, Santa

Clara, Fresno State, Pacific and Army.

Rockne paid a special visit to the

Brickpile in January 1925 to check up on

his former assistant.

By 1930, Slip and his newly named

GAELs beat Fordham 20-12 at the New

York Polo Grounds. The team, better

trained and better equipped than most

professional clubs, crisscrossed the

county by special train, accompanied by a

large group of well-heeled and well-oiled

supporters. Nonetheless, Mass was

celebrated en route in the observation car.

It is said that Madigan invented this novel

style of transcontinental college

competition.

In 1939 the Gaels won at the Cotton Bowl

with Madigan at the top of his form; but

at the end of that season, the President let

him go. Brother <Prince’ Albert then

refused to allow a discussion of the

matter for the next forty-five years,

although he protested that no impropriety

of any kind had brought on the dismissal.

Some confusion surrounds the actual

naming of the old gym for him: when and

if officially it was done at all.

MAIN QUAD. The tremendous space in

front of the Chapel was planned

by J J Donovan to form the heart

of the campus, enclosed by the

principal public buildings and

arcades. Unfortunately, two of

these, the Library and the

Auditorium, could not be built in

1928 (see DRYDEN).

Donovan’s plan was properly revealed

when, in 1942, the Navy moved the

ENTRANCE onto the axis of the Quad,

called Sampson Square at the time.

For many years two handsome benches

incorporating bricks from the Oakland

campus were here, recalling the Preflight

years and B P OLIVER, <73, who died in

1945. The western one near Dante was

dedicated at Homecoming in 1932 and was

the Senior Bench. Both were ripped out in

1984. A sundial nearby, given by the Class

of 1931, was inscribed ‘By and By Has No

End’; it too has vanished.

In 1996, the apron in front of the Chapel

steps was redesigned, cutting off vehicular

traffic and allowing for the erection in June

1997 of a monumental bronze statue of

Saint de La Salle by Bruce Wolfe. The area

is a tribute to Brother Mel, President for 28

years.

McELLIGOTT (see AUGUSTINE).

McKEON. One of the major pieces of

RAHILL Centre, the so-called “new

gym”, McKEON PAVILION, was

dedicated on 25 February 1978 as

the Gael home-court.

George R McKeon, alumnus of the

Brothers’ Sacred Heart High School in San

Francisco, contractor, trustee and

benefactor of the College, died in 1976.

In the lobby may be found the crowded

trophy case with the Sanford Trophy from

the 20-13 win over Texas Tech in the

Cotton Bowl on 2 January 1939 and the

Governor’s Perpetual Trophy from the

long Oregon-SMC series in football

ending with a Moraga win in 1950.

Another long series produced a reminder

of the final 20-12 win over Fordham in

1930. And, not to be forgotten, the

appreciation trophy from the City of

Oakland and Alameda County for a

winning football team.

The basketball relics may be found here.

The 1958-59, 1988-89 Championships

and the 1979-80 Co-championship are the

highlights. By the way, over these years

the WCAC renamed itself as the WCC,

perhaps hoping to be less athletic.

During a do-over in 2018, McKeon’s

outer walls were strengthened by four

buttresses; lighting and painting changed

the interior; a gigantic screen was

mounted on the south wall. In back, a

shamble of trailers was removed and the

area cleaned up.

MADIGAN, the old gym, still stands off

to the north, now devoted to exercise and

decay.

MISSION ROAD. The common name for

the College’s first campus in San

Francisco.

Desperate to have proper education

provided to his newly founded diocese,

Archbishop Alemany in 1853 set up a

little school in the basement of his

cathedral on California Street. By 1854 it

was called Saint Mary’s School. But he

had bigger ideas.

In 1855 the Archbishop acquired the

block bounded by Hayes, Grove, Larkin

and Polk for his new college. This noisy,

distracting location was reconsidered and

the land sold to become in 1914 the site of

the civic auditorium.

Alemany then turned to the countryside far

to the south on the road to San Jose and

bought 60 acres from Jesus Bernal’s

Rancho Rincon de las Salinas y Potrero

Viejo for $1600. The original grant had

been made in 1839 to Cornelio Bernal.

On 3 August 1862, the Archbishop rode out

and laid the cornerstone of Saint Mary’s

College. The inscription inside read:

Joseph Alemany, Archbishop of

California, laid the cornerstone of

this college under the title of Saint

Mary for the instruction of the youth

of California, not in literature only,

but, what is greater, in true

Christian knowledge.

The campus, designed by Thomas England,

was dedicated on 9 July 1863, opening to

210 students that fall. The small faculty and

the administration were made up of

diocesan priests.

The Archbishop, beginning in the winter of

1856 after long string of attempts to get the

BROTHERS, finally went to Rome in April

1867 and appealed to Pope Pius ix to force

the superiors in Paris to send him a few of

these professional teachers. He wanted

them to man his new college, to relieve the

small staff of his diocesan clergy running it

and to offset Saint Ignatius, the Jesuit

college at Fifth and Market Streets.

In August of 1868 he turned Saint Mary’s

over to the BROTHERS newly arrived

from New York via Panama. Scarcely had

they settled down when, on 2 October, an

large earthquake on the Hayward Fault

reminded them they were in a new land.

The hard work of the President, Brother

Justin, and friends of the College, led to a

petition for a charter on 16 November

1871. The State Board of Education

granted the request and the charter was

grandly received on 28 May 1872.

The next day the first baccalaureate

ceremony was held downtown. Jackson

Alpheus Graves, AB (who the next year

earned an MA from the College) and

James J Lawlor, BSc, were the first true

graduates. Graves became the most

prominent attorney in Los Angeles and

president of the Farmers and Merchants

Bank. He died in 1933. Lawlor had a

successful career and served as the first

president of the Alumni Association in

1879.

Earlier, on 20 February 1872, the first

Board of Trustees was formed, although

the title to the College remained firmly in

the Archbishop’s pocket.

By 1886, the wretched weather at Mission

Road had worn down the students and

faculty. The buildings were too small for

the growing student body. The chilly fog

and a series of disagreements with the

Archbishop concerning who owed whom

what brought the Brothers to search for a

new—and more independent— campus

of their own. They turned to Oakland, the

Athens of the West (see BRICKPILE).

Any street map of San Francisco quickly

reveals the site of the first campus: it is

now covered by a development shaped

like a bell, and marked by streets named

for the early Brothers: Justin Drive,

Agnon Avenue, Genebern Way (see

BROTHERS). Murray is the name of the

College chaplain. Nearby are College

Avenue, College Crescent, St Marys

Avenue, Alemany Boulevard, and even

Saint Mary’s Playground.

The original bell which was used at the

College until 1889 was then given to the

nearby Saint John’s Church (see KORTH).

State Historical Marker No 772 was erected

on 29 September 1962 near the old entrance

on Mission Street (once Mission Road).

After 1973, a small dining room behind the

Brickpile (where the Bookstore is now) was

named the Mission Road Room; then for a

short time after 1985, the Pub, replacing the

infamous Game Room in the basement of

FERROGGIARO (and now the textbook

store), was also named Mission Road.

MITTY HALL. This dorm was the first

permanent building erected at

Moraga since 1928 (recalling that

ASSUMPTION Hall was meant to

be “temporary” in 1942).

Work started in 1959 and the dedication

took place in 1960. The completion

however was delayed and students were

forced to triple up in other dorms for a

time.

Reis Lounge in the basement of Mitty, like

Ordway in Justin Hall, was furnished as a

comfortable common room in earlier days.

With 8.4 inches of rain from Typhoon

Frieda it was turned into a veritable

swimming pool in October 1962. A picture

of cavorting residents in swimming suits

appeared in the 1963 Gael. This space, not

surprisingly, was swallowed —and

digested—by the bureaucracy in the 80s.

John Joseph Mitty, the formidable fourth

Archbishop of San Francisco and

alumnus of the Brothers’ Manhattan

College, saved Saint Mary’s from total

financial ruin on 15 September 1937, a

result in part of the market collapse of

1929 and some very hard times in

Moraga. In a surprise move, the

Archbishop put up the enormous sum of

$750 000 to buy the college at a

bankruptcy auction on the steps of

Oakland City Hall, and turned it over the

Brothers. As a result the College was

reincorporated on 8 February 1938 (No

174513, Secretary of State).

Mitty, an affiliated member of the

Brothers, died in 1961 and was laid to

rest after an impressive funeral in the

cathedral on Van Ness. The student

Brothers’ choir sang the requiem. It took

a generation and a lot of sales of Christian

Brothers wine to pay back the archdiocese

what the Brothers regarded as a debt.

MORAGA. In 1835, Joaquin Moraga, the

son of Gabriel Moraga, the

explorer of early California, was

the grantee of the Rancho de los

Palos Colorados, an area of 13

316 ac now containing Moraga.

His cousin Juan Bernal (see

MISSION ROAD) shared in the

grant.

Three hundred acres for the new college

campus were purchased for $36 000 from

James Irvine and the Moraga Land

Company, with the help of Oliver

Kehrlein. An additional 100 acres was

thrown in for good measure.

The acreage, bordered by two creeks,

included the so-called Moraga Country

Club (in fact, a rustic hunting lodge), a lot

of hills and a swamp. Brother “Moraga” Joe

had engineered this coup in 1926 (see SAN

LEANDRO).

The architect John J Donovan of Oakland,

who had done the Oakland City Hall and

Technical High School buildings, put

together the impressive design in Mission-

Renaissance style.

Groundbreaking took place on Founder’s

Day, 15 May 1927, with 5 000 people,

many of whom arrived aboard four special

trains. Archbishop Edward J Hanna, the

third Archbishop of San Francisco,

presided. On the same day the Class of

1927 held their commencement ceremonies

in JUSTIN Grove.

Construction moved along quickly with the

help of a rail spur run onto the campus

between what are now Augustine and Saint

Albert Halls. In short order there appeared

in the wilderness a new little city. The

exterior colour scheme featured blue

sashwork and doors, with a pink-tinged

Mediterranean white for the exterior walls

and, of course, the red roofs of spanish tile.

Archbishop Hanna returned to dedicate the

new buildings on 5 August 1928, enabling

the students to move from Oakland on 13

September for classes.

The 1928-1932 period at Moraga was

spartan, with only a handful of cars on

campus, the occasional passenger train

calling at the station, and acres of unpaved

mud—or dust—crossed by plank

walkways, not to mention the effects of the

Depression and of Prohibition! A shortage

of funds was a continuing problem during

this period (see MITTY).

In the Fall of 1947, when the United

Nations was looking for a new

headquarters, rural Moraga Valley was

high on the list. Instead, after a donation

by the Rockefellers, New York was

chosen.

The Moraga family coat-of-arms is

worked in tile on the south wall of Dante

Hall, and one of the segments of the

central space in SODA Center is named

the Moraga Room.

The Moraga Quarterly, a noted literary

review, was published at the College for

some years after the move in 1928.

MORE (see BECKET).

MOUNT VAN. At 1194 feet, the highest

point on campus stands 600 feet

above the floor of the campus.

The name honours avid hiker, college

postmaster and former President, Brother

Vantasian. The US Coast and Geodetic

Survey identifies the peak as “St Mary’s”.

In the wild sixties, a group of students

called themselves the Mount Van

Raiders; they were later assimilated into

the Plotinus Club. This approximately

fraternal group held liturgies honoring the

One and used the old railroad station as

their parish.

The <SMC’ seen on the lower slope of

Mount Van was originally an <SM’ made

up of stones hauled up by new freshmen

during their initiation, usually in the wee

hours of the morning. Each man had to

find a stone the size of his head and then

paint it white.

The permanent letters were laid and

lighting installed, a gift of the Class of

1971. Enthusiastic students have managed

to paint the letters a variety of colours for

various occasions and ethnic display.

OBSERVATORY (see GEISSBERGER).

OLIVER HALL. The main college dining

room was named for Barthomew P

Oliver, 1873, (1853-1945).

He was present, as a boy, when Archbishop

Alemany laid the Mission Road cornerstone

in 1862. He was a faculty member at

Mission Road for a time, was president of

the Alumni Association in 1891 and

became a distinguished San Franciscan,

serving as foreman of the grand jury that

indicted Mayor Schmitz and Boss Abe Ruef

after a series of scandals. Oliver attended

the dedication at Oakland, and then the one

at Moraga....all three campuses.

This dignified space, with dark paneling

and tall windows, was staffed by student

waiters, a decent paying job before

elaborate financial-aid packages. Only with

the war did increased numbers change the

meal service over to a buffet line.

Nonetheless, until 1980, this room

remained in essentially the same state as it

had been in 1928. The huge paintings found

here for many years were either gifts of

Oliver’s or were on loan from the San

Francisco Art Museum.

Thirty solid oak tables and 300 handsome

oak chairs had been designed for the dining

room, but were replaced in the heedless 70s

by mass-produced furniture. Eventually, the

tables were refinished and returned to

Oliver, while a few salvaged chairs ended

up in the Brothers’ refectory.

The paintings, victims it was claimed of

some years of hurled mashed potatoes

and errant forks, disappeared in favour of

tapestry reproductions. Flanking the main

door are marble busts of Oliver’s uncle

and aunt, Dennis and Bridget Oliver,

count and countess in a papal order.

ORGAN. The size of this 18-ton

instrument suggests listing it with

the buildings.

In 1854 the Calvary Presbyterian Church

in San Francisco decided to help in

converting the gold rush city into a

civilized metropolis by installing an

organ. An order went out to the Henry

Erben Company of New York and what

was then certainly the largest organ in the

west arrived in 1858 after a trip around

the Horn.

In 1868 (the year the Brothers arrived in

the City) the church moved to a site on

Powell Street. Then again in 1901, to

make way for the construction of the

Saint Francis Hotel, the Calvary

community moved to Fillmore and

Jackson, where the organ was rebuilt by

Murray Harris Co of Los Angeles. It then

managed to survive the disaster in April

1906.

By 1928, when the College was leaving

Oakland, Calvary decided to unload their

vintage instrument. For $3500 the Felix

Schoenstein Company, organ builders in

SF, arranged an organ transplant and put

it into the loft of the new chapel at the

College in October. It was ready for the

dedication on 4 November.

Brother Julian, who taught at the College

for many years, served as organist during

the early days (1928-1937). Another

character involved with church music was

the Abbé Jean Ribeyron, from the Paris

Conservatory. He was a fierce advocate of

chant and worked with the Student

Brothers’ choir for some years; he

composed several pieces in honour of de La

Salle. After the war and until his retirement,

Brother Ultanian Benedict of the Physics

Department served as college organist and

tried to conserve the deteriorating organ.

Finally in 1998-9, after years of fundraising

promotions by Fr Edmund Moss <32, and a

series of major donations, the Austin Organ

Company of Hartford built a state-of-the-art

instrument, one of the finest in California.

The family of William Simon, ‘37, was a

generous contributor to the refurbishing of

the CHAPEL—hence, the William and

Alice SIMON Memorial Organ.

The organ was operational by Christmas in

1998, and incorporates parts of the earlier

instruments, including a 16-foot wooden

pipe from 1858, at 900 lbs the largest in the

organ. There are 3649 pipes in 63 ranks,

with 54 stops, three manuals and pedal. The

150-year old wooden case and facade have

been refurbished.

PATIOS. In the spanish style the buildings

at Moraga tend to cluster around

large quads and smaller patios.

Two original patios flank the chapel. On

the north side, the Holy Family Patio,

several statues and a mosaic of Saint de La

Salle done by Louisa Jenkins surround a

false well in this tranquil spot. The wrought

iron arbour over the well dates from 1928.

The estate of the Ash family paid for the

redesign and clean-up in 2011.

The tiny belfry of the Brothers House

stands in the eastern corner. The statue of

the Sacred Heart, installed in the north

aisle of the CHAPEL by Br Albert,

President, was moved outside in 1999.

Several of the “Academies” were held in

this patio, including one on Father Serra

in 1934. On the south wall, behind a

bush, is perhaps the most neglected

memorial on campus: a tribute to Brother

Vincentius “White” Leo (d 1954) and to

the civil engineering program (1901-

1931) championed by Leo. It is worth

noting that the Art Department, the

original notion for which emerged from

the drafting courses at the Brickpile, is a

relic of the now vanished engineering

curriculum.

On the south, the matching Students’

Patio is decorated by a tiled fountain and

several memorials and statues including a

little plaque to Fr Mathias Lu, long

associated with the College, a champion

of the Chinese-American community in

the US, who also tended the roses and

hollyhocks here for years. He died in June

2008, as an affiliated member of the

Brothers.

A memorial of the unborn, donated by the

campus Knights of Columbus in 1997,

sits on a plinth rescued from the front

entrance of the Brickpile. This stone from

1887 was salvaged from the 1929

demolition by the quick-witted Brother

Agnon; it then sat unknown and neglected

in the dirt outside Oliver Hall for nearly

seventy years. (see also KORTH

TOWER).

In 1999, the statue of Santa Isabel

(Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal) was

moved from the CHAPEL to this lovely

site. It was donated by the family of

Miguel de Avila Lucas (d 1940) and

blessed by the Patriarch of Lisbon during a

visit to the campus on 13 August 1936.

Directly behind the Chapel, in a nearly

inaccessible spot is KYRAN Patio,

complete with shade trees and a fountain. It

is surrounded by the Psychology

Department and the Brothers House. After

the gallery was established in 1953, it

opened onto this patio with a sort of

solarium. One night in 1975, a fire broke

out at the south end of the gallery and

gutted it. The Oakland Museum had just

taken out a visiting exhibit—no artworks

were lost. The fire brought the HEARST

Foundation to provide money for the

present gallery.

PEDRO. From the early MORAGA days of

1928-1941, with only a few cars

offering little hope of getting off

campus for entertainment, the rare

radio, very infrequent film

showings, no television, and little

else in the way of amusement, the

students turned to cards.

Bridge was played constantly, in the dorms

by boarders and on the train by day-

students. With no clear policy for their

attendance in Galileo and Dante, students

might be found spending all day at a card-

table in their dorm rooms.

Over the years, Pedro, a curious game

rarely found elsewhere, developed. This

contract game is named for the high scoring

“fives” or pedros. Both the Brothers and the

students played the game well into the 80s.

PHOENIX. The great baseball teams were

never to be called the Gaels (nor the

Saints, for that matter).

The extraordinary Phoenix played ball

from 1872 until it died quietly in 1943.

From 1891 the coach was the incredible

Brother Agnon, whose 1907 record was

26-0-1. In 1911, the Phoenix played the

World Champion Red Sox in a preseason

game--they won! In the 1915 World

Series, in Boston, Brother Agnon could

boast of four College graduates on the

field—a record that still stands.

Madigan was coach during the 20s, and in

March 1926 the Phoenix lost a two-day

meet against the Philadelphia Giants of

the Colored League.

Pictures of the team in the late 30s

sometimes show the name “Gaels” on the

jersey, although it remained the Phoenix

officially.

During the 50s, Lou GUISTO brought

back baseball and it rose from the ashes

yet again. Somehow in a thoughtless

regularization, the name “Gaels”

prevailed with the new team and the

proper name sank into oblivion.

During the 60s the campus literary

magazine was the Phoenix.

PINE GROVE. Several large pines

between FENLON and GALILEO

lent their name to an area that

served during the 60s and 70s as

the site for commencements,

including one addressed by

comedian Steve Allen.

The few remaining trees were taken down

in 1999, preparing the area for the new

science facility, BROUSSEAU Hall.

POOL (see RAHILL).

POPLAR GROVE. Between FENLON and

MADIGAN, next to the Gym

ANNEX, a large stand of old trees

was the site of graduations for some

years. In June 1963 the 100th year

commencement was held there, in

the shade.

This was a favourite spot for post-game

gatherings and for picnics by many on- and

off-campus groups. The old trees were

removed in 1999. A sculpture shaped like a

helix stands nearby.

POST OFFICE. The College had its own

post office after the move to

Moraga, and has a proper ZIP code

(94575).

There was an official postmaster on

campus. Brothers Florinus Peter and

Vantasian Jude (both former Brickpile

presidents), as well as Josephus and

Dorotheus Anselm held that post at

Moraga. The flamboyant Jim Farley once

visited SMC in his role as US Postmaster-

General.

The post-office had migrated from the

original location just to the right of the

chapel in the south arcade to GALILEO

Hall for the 40s and 50s, then into the

ANNEX during the 60s and in 1973 to a

location between DRYDEN and

FERROGGIARO (in what had been the

theatre). In 1999, the Post Office moved

into newly constructed quarters next to

LEFEVRE Hall.

Sadly, in a cost-cutting move in the 70s, the

Post Office Department demoted Saint

Mary’s to a substation of Moraga. Adding

injury to insult, it pulled the federal officers

out, leaving the College to staff its own

facility.

POWERHOUSE. Although now

converted into offices, this little

building was once devoted to

weights and exercise equipment.

In1928 it was named for the great

boilers supplying heat and hot

water to the entire campus.

Rooms for workers occupied the front. A

large steam whistle was mounted on the

roof and coded blasts were used to

summon gardeners and janitors from

across the campus. Students, with little

else to do late at night, would climb up

the wall and cross a precarious ledge to

tie down the whistle; it took quite some

time to turn it off again.

In 1992, the boilers were removed and the

two-story space occupied by the Athletic

Department. The little wing on the south

housed offices for a series of staff,

including even a vice-president, the late

Ray White, and for some years the

stalwart “Terrible Tom” Twomey ran the

Veterans Office from here. Then came the

Buildings and Grounds department and

later the January Term. That all changed

when the Grad Business demanded space

on campus. The Powerhouse was

remodeled and the department shifted

from Rheem. The Print Shop and the

shipping department have taken over the

ground floor at the back of the building.

As a reminder of the original purpose,

there stands the disused smokestack.

PREFLIGHT SCHOOL. Following the

depression and the disastrous

1937 bankruptcy, until the

outbreak of World War II at the

end of 1941, the College faced

really hard times, short of both

money and students. The military

draft after Pearl Harbor was not

going to help the dwindling student-

body.

The Department of the Navy however had

an immediate need for a lot of pilots and by

Christmas of 1941 chose the Universities of

Iowa, Georgia and North Carolina, along

with Saint Mary’s in the West, to serve as

the four Preflight training schools.

In June 1942 with the agreement of Brother

Austin, President, they indeed took over the

entire campus, with the exception of the

north edge. That corner of the campus

included ASSUMPTION Hall housing the

few civilian students and the student

Brothers, the Art ANNEX serving as

classroom building, the CO-OP and the

athletic department housed in a shed behind

Assumption.

The College retained only a few science

labs in GALILEO as well as the Brothers

House, although a couple of officers were

housed there with the Brothers.

Thousands of Navy men filled up the rest of

the campus—actually they were “on board”

what was now a “ship”. New buildings

were thrown up: barracks Essex, Wasp and

Hornet (where SIENA and SODA are now),

ASSUMPTION HALL and the two

ANNEXES, the Officers’ Mess (see POST

OFFICE), medical facilities (see

BECKET), the brobdingnagian

Independence Hall for a drill area and an

indoor pool, the largest in the world at the

time.

A young Lt Gerald R Ford arrived to coach

in the Navy’s athletic program. He indeed

went on to other work later.

After 30 June 1946, when the Secretary of

Navy decommissioned the base, most of

this construction was removed, the last of

it being the laminated arch-beams of

Independence during the winter of 1947.

However, the extensive concrete

foundations remaining just below the

surface were a serious problem later when

MITTY, JUSTIN and the COMMON

were put in.

The Navy made a lasting aesthetic change

on the campus in the new ENTRANCE,

but a more subtle yet major contribution

was the arrival of EBMUD water at the

College after some federal persuasion.

Before the war the water situation on

campus had become very serious, so

direct connection to the public utility was

a necessity. In fact, the drought of 1942

brought it all to a resolution.

After the war, the student body (as well as

the football team) was greatly enlarged by

veterans on the GI Bill.

On 7 June 2003, the surviving airmen

were honoured at the College with a day

including a message from Mr Ford, a

movie about Pre-flight, a concert by the

Marines, a flyover of vintage aircraft and

the dedication of a bench in front of

SODA.

It is worth adding that the Preflight

School was not the first time the College

found itself cooperating with the armed

services in wartime. At the Brickpile

during 1918-1919 the Students Army

Training Corps enrolled 200 young men

to drill under army direction. Their rifles

and equipment later stored in the

basement were once exhibited by the anti-

Catholic East Bay press as proof that the

Papacy was planning to take over the

United States in a violent coup!

PRESIDENTS. Since the foundation at

Mission Road in 1863, there have been

twenty-six men presiding over the faculty.

In many cases before 1962, the President

also served as Director of the House and

was subject to canon law and a six-year

term. A special exception during the War

was made by Rome for Brother Austin’s

nine-year term.

Together with manpower shortages, this

helps explain the shorter terms of office

and the odd repeats. It should be pointed

out two sets of brothers served as

president (the Mallons and the

McMahons). And no one can ignore the

fact that fully eleven are FBI (Foreign-

Born Irish), a fact not lost on the

American Brothers themselves. Only

seven Presidents have been native

Californians.

term birth

1 Father John Harrington 1863 1823, Ireland

2 Father Peter Gray 1863-1868 1823, Ireland

3 Brother Justin 1868-1879 1834, Ireland, McMahon

4 Brother Bettelin 1879-1891 1830, Ireland, McMahon

5 Brother Cianan 1891-1892 1833, Ireland, Griffin

6 Brother Yvasian Michael 1892-1894 1855, Ireland, Dorgan,

7 Brother Eminold Walter 1894-1895 1854, Missouri, ODonnell

and 1900-1902

8 Brother Walter Erminold I 1895-1900 1855, Ireland, OMalley

9 Brother Zenonian 1902-1904 1867, Wisconsin, Brannan

10 Brother Vellesian 1904-1910 1870, Oregon, Mallon

and 1914-1917

11 Brother Florinus Peter 1910-1911 1857, Canada, Doyle

12 Brother Fabrician 1911-1914 1843, France, Pelerin

13 Brother Urban Gregory ii 1917-1922 1877, SF, Mallon

and 1923-1927

14 Brother Vantasian Jude 1922-1923 1869, Ireland, Sharkey

15 Brother Urbanus Lewis 1927-1930 1873, Ireland, Tracey

16 Brother Zachary Leo 1930-1932* 1881, SF, Meehan

17 Brother Victorinus Jasper 1932-1935 1880, California, Fitzsimmons

18 Brother Udgerian Albert 1935-1941 1900, Ireland, Rahill

19 Brother Austin Odran 1941-1950 1898, Ireland, Crowley

20 Brother Walstan Thomas 1950-1956 1916, Montana, Levi

21 Brother Sylvester Albert 1956-1962 1918, Oakland, Plotz

22 Brother Timothy Michael 1962-1969** 1922, Oakland, Quinn

23 Brother Timothy Mel 1969-1997 1928, Oakland, Anderson

24 Brother Craig 1997-2004 1953, Baltimore, Franz

25 Brother Ronald 2004-2012 1948, Oakland, Gallagher

26 James A Donahue 2012-

(*Brother Leo separated the administrative and canonical offices, taking

the title “Chancellor” and leaving Br Jasper as Director. The job was

reunited after Leo resigned.

**With the appointment of Br Michael in 1962, the Visitor split the jobs

again, this time permanently.)

RAHILL CENTER. In 1978 the sports

complex was named for Brother U Albert,

known as the <Prince”, who had also served

as President (1935-1941), the youngest such

in the nation at the time.

In his later years Brother Albert filled the

rôle of dignified spokesman for the College,

decorating College fund-raising campaigns,

attending many athletic events and nearly all

social occasions. In his eighties, he presided

over basketball games from his chair at the

end of the bench, and delivered the line

“God is a Gael” in the face of a Stanford

cheering section at the dedicatory game in

McKeon. He died in 1983.

Another part of the sports complex is the

brace of fields at the back. The oldest is

SMITH TRACK, now a diamond and

practice field, named for James M Smith,

<10, a Brickpile graduate and benefactor

memorialized on a plaque set up during

Homecoming 1931 on a boulder hauled to

Moraga from the Oakland campus. Just

behind is the STADIUM (qv).

At the front of the campus may be found

additional pieces of RAHILL CENTER:

GUISTO Field and KORTH tennis centre on

the west side near the Townhouses. The H J

Korth family donated the twelve courts in

1990 in memory of Timothy Korth. This

facility replaced the courts situated for many

years on what is now the site of the new

FILIPPI Hall.

Nearby on the west side of the road is

COTTRELL Field, dedicated on 11

March 2000 for women’s softball. The

donor, Trustee Elizabeth Larson Cottrell,

named it for her in-laws, Dr John K and

Katherine C Cottrell.

On the east side is GARAVENTA

soccer field, dedicated on 18 November

1990 and named for Silvio E Garaventa,

Sr, Regent, husband of Mary (see

GARAVENTA). Adjoining is the rugby

pitch (see VINCENT).

REDWOOD GROVE. This quiet sylvan

circle surrounds the outdoor

theatre. The entrance leads off to

the left from the trail to JUSTIN

Grove.

For many years the Senior Sendoff was

held here each spring. It has also been

the scene of a number of rock concerts

and dramatic productions, including the

festive Birds of Aristophanes in the

Spring of 1971.

The redwood, a cousin of the sequoia,

was palo colorado, a name connected

with this corner of the county since

spanish times. With the coming of the

Americans, the drive for lumber wiped

out the virgin stands. The last redwood

tree in Canyon was cut in 1860. What

now fill the Berkeley Hills are second-

or third-growth trees.

During the 30s redwoods were planted in

an undeveloped meadow behind the old

football field by the artistic Brother “White”

Leo (see PATIOS), who watered them by

hand, and by George Bertain, 1923, whose

name was attached to the Grove in the 80s.

In the sixties, when the Moraga shopping

centre was being built, a student quietly

borrowed a bulldozer one evening, brought

it on campus and used it to clear and level

the inside of the redwood circle. The cement

stage was then installed, thanks to a

donation garnered from the Fairmont Hotel

by the students.

RHEEM CAMPUS. An strange suburb of

MORAGA named for hot-water-

heater czar Donald Rheem is home

to the off-campus centre.

When the Moraga campus began showing

wear and tear at the seams, an abandoned

supermarket offered certain attractions. By

September 2001, the building and the

surrounding parking lot were rented. Storage

for unused furniture and space for extended

education administration were the first

priorities. In a burst of fervour, a small

chapel was installed.

By the following spring the entire 80 000 sq

ft property was bought from the Hahn Trust.

Extended Education was discontinued so

that in 2007 the development staff was able

to transfer from WEST Hall. And then the

Graduate Business operation and the Alumni

Office moved in.

RONCALLI HALL. Giuseppe Roncalli was

better known as Pope John xxiii

(1958-1963).

A corner of the kitchen complex, built in

1967 by Brother Michael, had included a

few dining rooms, offices and storage. On

21 July 2008 it was completely razed to

make room for the new kitchen (see

BENILDE).

The formal President’s Dining Room

and the adjoining patio were originally at

one end of Roncalli, but these were

converted to faculty use after the

building of WEST Hall.

Adjacent was the rather undefined

Austin Room (Brother Austin served as

President during World War II); now and

again a section of the dining room, at

other times this east end was used as

faculty offices and as a classroom for the

Integral Program.

The Raskob Room nearby, originally the

dining room for the student Brothers, but

after access to the kitchen was sealed, for

some twenty years it served as a

classroom for audio-visual presentations

presided over by the indefatigable

Brother Stephen Carl. The space, named

for the donating foundation, was

abandoned in 1996.

In 1999 it was finally returned to food

service as the Founders Room. Portraits

of the “founders”, ALEMANY, DE LA

SALLE, JUSTIN and FENLON are

found here.

Today, Roncalli has been forgotten and

we have instead the awkwardly named

“Faculty-Staff Dining Room”.

SABATTE (see TOWNHOUSES).

SACRAMENTO NORTHERN. Yes,

this railroad too was part of the

campus.

The College’s connection with railroads

in fact dates from 14 September 1863

when the first San Francisco & San Jose

train left Market Street and passed in front

of the two-month-old Mission Road campus.

The faculty and students lined the tracks and

waved flags for the big event— modern

technology had reached Bernal Heights!

Today at Moraga few traces of the old SN

right-of-way remain, but the train did play a

major role in the early days at Moraga.

The Oakland and Antioch Railway ran a

track into the area about 1913, and it in turn

was bought by the San Francisco and

Sacramento in 1914 and again in 1929 by

the Sacramento Northern, an electric line.

SN trains ran north to Chico via Sacramento,

and west to Oakland via Canyon and a long

tunnel. For a time, Western Pacific

considered running its main line into

Oakland along these tracks; this interesting

possibility, with the vision of long freights

passing the front of the College, was

dropped at the start of the Depression.

From the east the line left Walnut Creek on

what was to become Olympic Boulevard to

Reliez Station, then along the hiking trail

skirting Lafayette, around to Burton Station

and then following Las Trampas Creek to

Saint Mary’s. The 1928 College station

stood on the west side of what is now the

entrance road (see ENTRANCE) in the

slight depression. The odd jogs in Saint

Mary’s Road—at Burton, at Bollinger

Canyon Road, and near Moraga Common —

are reminders of grade-crossings.

The students during the 30s usually referred

to the railroad delivering them to campus as

the “Short Line”. In 1939 it took 25 minutes

from downtown Oakland to the College;

westbound, it was 12 minutes from Walnut

Creek! In 1937, the tracks were extended to

the East Bay Terminal in San Francisco

by way of the lower deck of the new Bay

Bridge.

When the Moraga site was under

consideration in 1927, Brother ‘Moraga

Joe’ hauled the faculty Brothers from the

Brickpile on the train out to view the

property. It had been a very wet spring,

and when they alighted at the “Country

Club” stop in front of what would

become the College even the tracks were

under water. The disgruntled Brothers

were not impressed with the swampy

acreage nor happy with their wet feet,

and were glad to get back to Oakland

after the enforced excursion. The poor

weather at Moraga still includes rain

with an average of 28 inches a year—and

the rare but notable snowfalls, for

example in 1936, 1938 and 1975!

A pleasant story involves Lynn Hull, a

young railwayman serving as conductor

on the Short Line 9.00 morning train,

Waiting for the return trip at 3.00, Hull

filled in the time by hanging around the

card games in the dorms. Brother Virgil

encouraged him instead to take classes

with his passengers. He graduated

maxima cum laude in 1938 and went on

to Cal in economics, eventually

becoming an executive with Southern

Pacific.

Passenger service on the SN died slowly,

ending on 30 July 1941. The last freight

was hauled by No 652 (now at the Rio

Vista Junction Museum) from Oakland

to Lafayette on the morning of 28

February 1957. It left SMC at 12.30...

the end of rapid transit.

The line was abandoned, the rails pulled

up that year, leaving the empty station,

which then was used as a refuge by the

Plotinus Club, to be demolished finally in

1962. For years ties from the line were used

for bonfires at athletic rallies on campus.

Eventually the right-of-way was converted

to a hiking path by the county, except for the

stretch in front of the College that may be

traced from just west of the tennis courts and

softball field, over the entrance road, curving

by the dam. It crosses the county road in the

deep depression at the north corner of the

campus.

SAGA. Several times this food service

corporation, put together by two

students at Colgate University, ran

the kitchen at Moraga. It was said

that only the Soviet Army moved

more victuals than SAGA.

Although other groups have had the contract

(Marriott and now Sodexho, for example),

for some time the students have loosely and

inaccurately called the entire kitchen

operation as well as OLIVER Hall “SAGA”.

In fact, “hitting SAGA” meant to go for a

meal.

SAINT JOSEPH HALL. An example of a

transferred name: a little dormitory

to house campus workers and named

for Joseph the Carpenter was built in

1961 to replace the quarters in

Benilde Hall, the Zoo and a few

rooms in the Powerhouse.

During the late 60s the building became

student housing and later the south end was

home to the Dominican priests on campus.

In tribute to them, Brother Mel, President,

renamed it SIENA HALL for the Dominican

nun, Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), a great

writer, reformer and Doctor of the Church.

In 1998, the President moved his

residence into the west end of Siena

Hall. The Department of Education,

Security and Campus Ministry used the

other end at various times, and then in

2005 this space was made over into a

small dormitory.

The dispossessed Saint Joseph was

translated to the campus maintenance

buildings on the east side of the campus.

The Campus Service Center had been

built in 1983 to replace the ancient

wooden garages and workshops on the

site of the “Country Club” (see

MORAGA). between MADIGAN and

the POWERHOUSE. At the back today

are the garage and the corporation yard,

built overlooking the long-gone LAKE

LA SALLE.

SAN LEANDRO. The little East Bay

town was once chosen as and

may well have ended up being

the home of the College.

By 1923 when the College decided to

move out of Oakland, a 225-acre site in

San Leandro, purchased by Brother

Urban GREGORY ii in 1919, was the

obvious choice, favoured by many at the

Brickpile. It was on the east side of

Foothill Boulevard, in a charming hilly

alcove a short walk from Lake Chabot

and the Dunsmuir House. The intended

entrance was to be where the northbound

MacArthur/Foothill exit leaves I580

today. A grand tour of the site was

arranged for the Renunion on 21 May

1923. B P Oliver was there.

Several sets of elaborate plans for a San

Leandro campus were drawn up by the

Oakland architect J J Donovan. One

particularly ambitious rendering in

Collegiate Tudor style was labeled “The

University of Saint Mary.” A fund-raising

drive in December 1925 aimed at $1.5

million. But there is some evidence that

ambition was outmatched by lack of money.

Brother Zeticus Joseph ii, Visitor at the

time, overruled the decision to move to San

Leandro and tried to change the prevailing

opinion (see SACRAMENTO

NORTHERN). Mysteriously the

groundbreaking at San Leandro scheduled

for Founder’s Day, 15 May 1926 was

postponed to the following May and then

dropped.

The property was probably sold at the same

time as the Brickpile. In 1939 the San

Leandro site was developed into Sheffield

Village, masterminded by architect Irwin

Johnson. Someone made a lot of money.

But, no regrets, the property sits astride the

notorious Hayward Fault.

Also in 1926, the College rejected an offer

by the Chamber of Commerce of Los

Angeles to donate land and a great deal of

money for a Southern California campus.

Instead Brother Joseph engineered a move to

a sleepy village beyond the Berkeley Hills;

his tenacity earned him the nickname

‘Moraga Joe’ among the Brothers (see

FENLON).

SERVICE CENTRE. (see SAINT JOSEPH).

SICHEL HALL. Franz W Sichel, a great

patron of the arts, was a partner in

Fromm & Sichel of San Francisco,

sole distributors of the Christian

Brothers wines and brandy.

Since 1928 the biology labs and classrooms

had been on the ground floor of GALILEO

Hall. Sichel was dedicated on 6 May 1976

and the entire department moved in. In

2000, Biology relocated to

BROUSSEAU Hall. Since then the little

building has been home to faculty

offices, a few classrooms and for a time

the Integral Program.

Sichel stands on a platform of material

pumped from the LAKE bottom by

Brother Nivard Raphael in 1942 to bring

the level up to that of Galileo Hall. The

site was then used until 1976 as a soccer

field and baseball diamond.

SIENA (see SAINT JOSEPH).

SIMON (see ORGAN).

SMITH (see RAHILL).

SODA CENTER. When it became clear

that FERROGGIARO Center, the

student union, was inadequate for

the increasing number of college

residents, this complex was put

up amd dedicated on 27 August

1989.

Soda occupies a large piece of the back

campus, the site of the Navy barracks

Wasp, Essex and Hornet in 1942-46.

After the war the site was unused except

for a small greenhouse tended by several

Brothers. Many trees on the campus

were born there.

The center includes a grand ballroom,

which may be divided for different

functions, into (from left to right)

LAFAYETTE, MORAGA and ORINDA

and includes a musicians’ gallery.

Portraits of the donors, Charles Y and

Helen Soda, are hanging in the central

section.

On the southwest end is CLAEYS Lounge,

named for benefactors Linus F and Ruth

Claeys, whose portrait is over the fireplace.

Outside are two sculptures: “La Donna,

1996" in memory of Florence Valdez, wife

of a staff member, and “Gothic Windows,

1991" by Dan Dykes (after the buttresses of

Notre Dame de Paris) in stainless steel and

goldleaf, looking rather like a pair of pliers,

and donated by the Seniors.

SPLINTERS (see ASSUMPTION).

STADIUM. In the 70s, Gael Stadium was

built in an area long used for football

practice after 1928, then called

Farragut Fields by the Navy and left

abandoned after the war. A worn-

down running track (see RAHILL)

was here before the stadium was

built.

An independent member of the Class of

1970 once lived in a little concrete bunker

left by the Navy in this area—benefitting

from the R&B reduction.

The 3500-seat stadium is no longer home to

the vanished football team, but is used for

rugby and other sporting events as well as

June commencement exercises.

SMC football has had a long if checkered

career, beginning in 1892 at the Brickpile

with the Saints, a club team. It then survived

two presidential attacks. In 1899 Theodore

Roosevelt took college football to task for

terrible injuries and poor supervision. The

College, as well as Santa Clara and a

number of others shut down the sport for

some years until the erection of the NCAA.

The result at the College was the fielding of

great rugby teams from 1899 to 1907.

An example of the good old days of

football is provided by the Cal game on

4 October 1947. Prior to the game three

Berkeley students were kidnaped by the

Gaels. The game itself took place in

Memorial Stadium, with Governor Earl

Warren, Speaker of the House Joseph

Martin and crooner Tony Martin all

seated on the SMC side. Coach James

Phelan lost 45-6 to Pappy Waldorf’s

lads, who presumably got the hostages

back.

Later, on 3 January 1951, President

Brother Walstan Thomas and his

Trustees, citing problems with academic

standards, a grossly inflated competition

and the Korean War, again dropped the

sport, along with baseball. This time the

response was a winning basketball

program through the 60s.

In the interim, the pros took over the

campus for their training camp. Red

Hickey and the Forty-Niners arrived

each summer during the fifties and

sixties.

Club football managed to get its head

back under the SMC tent and then,

exerting intense pressure, the alumni had

football reinstated as a competitive sport

at the College during the 70s.

In March 2004, although aware it is

impossible to kill a bad idea, the

Trustees tried again to shut football

down. They succeeded and the result

was that considerable funds were saved

and diverted to improve other sports.

SYUFY. The performing arts building

was dedicated on 14 September

2003. The groundbreaking in

Spring 2002 placed the site

behind LEFEVRE Theater, with a

new scenery shop, practice rooms

and offices.

In order to make the best use of space while

not blocking cross-campus traffic, a stairway

was run through a passage in the centre of

the building.

The late Remond Syufy, 1945, developed

the Century Theaters. His sons, Raymond,

1984 and Joseph, 1987, daughter-in-law,

Michelle, ‘88 and other donors (some real,

some not) set up this memorial. (Also see

TOWNHOUSES).

THILLE (see TOWNHOUSES).

TOWNHOUSES. The four original

townhouses, built on the swampy

edge of the campus, were dedicated

on 7 July 1973. The site included the

duck pond, tended in the 60s by

Brother Ralph “the Boof” and Fred

Tiffany, campus tailor whose shop

was nearby in the Zoo.

The townhouse accommodations were based

on the success of BECKET and MORE

Halls, providing a common living area and a

complete kitchen surrounded by two or three

twin bedrooms.

Edward W FREITAS (1907-1945) was the

brother of Judge Carlos Freitas, 1927, the

chief donor.

John and Mary SABATTE were the parents

of the then owners of Berkeley Farms,

Frank, 1936 and Remond, 1945.

Pauline SYUFY (1894-1955) was the

mother of Raymond Syufy, 1940, owner of

Century Theatres at the time.

Albert J THILLE (1888-1970) was the

brother of Mary Thille of Santa Paula, a

benefactress also responsible for the

reconstruction of De La Salle Quad in

1976.

The second flight of townhouses,

GUERRIERI EAST and GUERRIERI

WEST, was built in 1981 thanks to the

estate of Lewis Guerrieri and funds

earmarked for the direct benefit of

students. The surrounding area bordering

the creek beyond the baseball diamond

and tennis courts is GUERRIERI PARK.

VETERANS. A number of plaques

around campus recall and even

name those graduates who gave

their lives in battle (see

ARCADES).

In 2018, a shady spot on the south side

of DANTE was reconfigured to be the

site for a memorial to servicemen, with

five benches: Army, Navy, Air Force,

Marines and Coast Guard. A list in the

middle lists those who died in service.

VINCENT. The rugby pitch was

dedicated on 14 April 1991 in

memory of Coach Patrick

Vincent, captain of the 1956

world-champion New Zealand

All-Blacks team and rugby coach

at the College from 1968 to

1983.

Pat lived for years on the second floor of

Justin Hall and shepherded his ruggers to

competitions in all parts of the world.

While returning with his team on a flight

from Paris he died of a heart attack over

Pittsburgh.

The former ruggers and the Frank Tucci

(graduated1970) Fund raise money for the

independent team and were able to help

finance an upgrade of the field (see

STADIUM) in 2006.

WEST HALL. The second administration

building, oddly is “northeast” of its

mate FILIPPI HALL.

It is in fact named for Brother T Jerome,

faculty member and longtime vice-president

of the College, who also served as Visitor of

San Francisco during the 60s. Kenneth

Hoffman, developer and philanthropist,

promised funds for the building only if it

were to be named for Brother Jerome.

After housing the administration and

development department for some years,

West was rearranged in the summer of 2008.

Here are Financial Aid, Public Relations,

Admissions and International Studies. On

the second are also Development and Zocchi

Lounge.

Outside, in the little alumni plaza, can to be

found commemorative benches and a large

number of inscribed paving bricks. It is all

overseen by a statue of Saint Jude, patron of

impossible cases.

YORK. (see ARCADE and AGENO).

ZOCCHI. (see WEST).

ZOO (see AUGUSTINE).

POSTSCRIPT. A small number of sites

on campus seem to have no name. The

little creek running during the rainy

season down from the Observatory,

through Ageno Park, behind De La Salle

and skirting the Townhouses before

leaving the campus on its way to the San

Leandro Reservoir, has strangely enough

never been given a proper name.

In addition, the patio flanking the chapel

on the south and the faculty dining

complex in what was once Roncalli Hall

have no patrons. The main quad and the

entrance road are orphans, too.

Furthermore, a number of campus

figures have no memorials. Brother

Zachary “Black” Leo, an imposing

SMC figure with a national reputation,

was professor of English, a tireless

producer of dramas, author of a number

of text books and novels, a poet, and

great public speaker, who on at least one

occasion held an audience in the SF civic

auditorium spellbound with a lecture on

Shakespeare. He was Chancellor at

Moraga and had a great influence on the

development of the “liberal arts” nature

of the College. His credo: “I believe that

the world has an idea behind it. I believe

in the European tradition.”

Brother Agnon Francis (“B Agnon”),

a New Yorker who as a boy was moved

to Grass Valley, was orphaned there and

joined the Brothers in 1873. He was on

the faculty at all three campuses, had a

long career as coach (see PHOENIX)

and in his retirement as an enthusiastic

fan, loved by generations of students.

His death in 1934 was marked nationally

by eight-column headlines. The front

diamond was known before the War as

Agnon Field, but the name was forgotten

after 1942.

Brother Fabrician, a dignified Frenchman

who was President at the Brickpile and

encouraged excellence and the liberal arts,

has no institutional memorial. Brother

Austin Odran, President during the difficult

war years, who energetically shepherded the

College through very hard times and was a

fixture in the language department, teaching

French and Spanish, has no reminder on

campus.

Other longtime Moragans who might be

memorialized are Brothers Josephus,

responsible for the hiring of Coach

Madigan; Brother Urpasian Clement,

librarian; Bede Edward, a dignified

gentlemen, English professor and the

founder of the Knights of Columbus at the

College; and Brother Ulpian Jerome,

staunch advocate of the liberal arts while

serving as dean of Business Administration

and Economics.

The late Ben Frankel taught history at the

College from just after World War II. He

became a fixture, remarkable for his

booming voice. He was affiliated to the

Brothers while keeping his deep Hebrew

roots.

In addition, any name from a long list of

professors might be considered: for

example, John Wellmuth, Arthur Campbell,

Joseph Foran, Allen Garrett, Lloyd Gallardo,

the novelist George Elliott, James

Townsend, Thomas Toomey (longest

serving Moragan, 1937-1999), Fred Whelan,

Rafael Alan Pollock and many more.

And finally, former President, Gerald

Rudolph Ford, who served on the staff of the

Pre-flight School, might be honoured.

_________________________________

Brother L Raphael, FSC

Moraga, August 2019