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Though Mother Aloysia Hardey had established a house in Albany in 1852 with Ellen Jennings in charge, it was not until 1859 that the Rathbone property, Kenwood, became the Convent of the Sacred Heart. As soon as the transaction was complete, the boarding school was moved there and the numbers grew from eighteen in 1858 to forty in 1862, when the next annual letter was issued. In addition to the boarding school at Kenwood, there were forty-five externes, day pupils, in the city and a free school that served 135 children. In 1860-61, before the move to Kenwood, all this activity was managed by a community of fourteen, of whom eleven were aspirants, (young professed in today’s terminology). After the move there was a large staff at Kenwood, eighteen in all, and a small community of eight in the city.

Here is the way they divided up the work at Kenwood in 1862: Mother Mary Frances Peacock (sister of Cornelia Connelly) was the superior, treasurer, mistress general and mistress of health. Mother Regina Décailly was the assistant, surveillante general, French teacher and moderator of the Children of Mary; Margaret Kennedy taught the superior class and “first class” English and religion and had the Angels’ Sodality. Margaret Cornelius taught fifth class French and gave music lessons; Cecilia Northall was sacristan, taught needlework, was charged liturgical singing and had the Aloysians’ Sodality. One professed, Margaret Martin, is listed as malade. An aspirant, Hannah Gibbons, taught the second class English and handwriting, and a novice, Catherine Power, taught the third class English, played the organ and gave music and drawing lessons. It may seem that many branches of knowledge were omitted, but the “class mistress” of those days was responsible for several subjects besides English.

Sister Willett made the shoes and did the washing; Sister Boler was dressmaker and did the ironing, while Sister Walsh ironed the caps, acted as portress and waited on the chaplain. Sister Hassey was the lamplighter and helped the dressmaker. Sister Boyer was in charge of the farm and the chicken yard. Sister O’Toole was the cook and Sister Flynn was community refectorian; Sister Cahill was dépensière (store room keeper) and school refectorian. The infirmarian was Sister Lemieux, who also took care of the pupils’ clothing. Thus all the material needs of the household were provided for.

The spiritual needs, in the sense of liturgical services, suffered some neglect at the beginning because we are told that in spite of his benevolence, the bishop could not afford to send a priest more than three days a week. Later, the annalist exults in the availability of daily Mass and exposition and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on the usual feast days.

The children were encouraged to be mission-minded from the beginning. They gave a concert and held a raffle for the “poor Chinese,” and the nuns were happy to see the younger ones make sacrifices to contribute to the cause. We are told that one of the visitors they liked the best was Father de Smet, the friend of Philippine, who told them all about his “dear Indians,” two hundred of whom he had baptized in one year.

The nuns report, in the Annual Letters 1859-62, that another of their “consolations” was to see prejudice against them on the part of Protestants diminish. This remark, like that of the Boston scribe quoted last month, shows that our schools suffered the effects of the anti-Catholic sentiment prevalent in the Northeast in the mid-19^th century. In Albany, however, when some of the most influential and wealthy families sent their daughters to the convent, there resulted an improved reputation for the school. In later annual letters the nuns comment with joy on the numerous conversions to Catholicism of Protestant pupils. The boarding school grew until by 1899 there were ninety boarders.

An increase in numbers of another kind took place that year, 1899, when the novitiates of Maryville in St. Louis and the Sault in Canada were combined with that of Kenwood. From then until 1959, there was only one novitiate for the vicariates of the United States and Canada. 1959 saw the opening of a novitiate in El Cajon for the California vicariate, and in 1969 the novitiate, again for the whole country, was relocated to the Boston area. The presence of the novitiate gave Kenwood its special cachet among the houses of the Society in the U.S. and gave it a special place in the memories of all the RSCJ whose noviceship years were spent there.

Kenwood’s story has been told briefly twice: first by Cornelia Craigie in Kenwood, the first hundred years, 1953, and by Ruth Cunningham, RSCJ, in Life through 125 years, 1978.