If you live in Darnall, they are in your backyard. If you live at 35th and Q streets, they are out your front window, but for most here on campus, they are the “Girls Next Door.” You see them prancing around in their pleated skirts or out on the lacrosse field in the afternoon. You may see them in your Spanish class and wonder, “Why does that girl wear the same outfit everyday?” If you are up early and try to cross 35th Street at 7:30 in the morning, there is a good chance you will be run over by a herd of them on their way to school in a Volvo station wagon. Wisey’s and Sugar’s are surely places to avoid around 3 p.m. as the girls come in packs from up the street for an after-school snack. You see them down at the boathouse and might be lucky enough to get one of them to row a pair with you and yes, sometimes they even end up at Georgetown parties. They are the girls from Georgetown Visitation high school, and for more than two hundred years they have had a history and relationship with Georgetown University.
A LITTLE HISTORY
The relationship between Georgetown University and Georgetown Visitation extends back to the beginning of both institutions. The story of Visitation begins when a group of nuns were expelled from their convent in Tours, France at the beginning of the Reign of Terror. Although they boarded a ship bound for Charleston, S.C., the nuns ended up in what would later become Washington, D.C. The nuns, known as the “Poor Clares,” purchased a small house in Georgetown at 35th and P streets and in 1798 founded the Georgetown Academy for Young Ladies.
In 1799, Leonard Neale, the archbishop of Baltimore, had just been named the fourth president of Georgetown College. When he left Baltimore for Georgetown, a group of “three pious ladies,” as they are referred to in Visitation lore, to whom Neale had been spiritual adviser, followed him. Neale purchased a house for them and began to oversee their training in the Visintine order. Within the year, the pious ladies had joined forces with the Poor Clares, and Georgetown Visitation was born. Neale was named spiritual adviser of the school, an appointment that began the tradition of having a University Jesuit as chaplain of Visitation. The tradition continues even today, with a team of Jesuits traveling to Visitation daily.
The Poor Clares left Visitation in 1804 to return to France, but the pious ladies continued to draw students and other women who wished to learn the Visintine ways. With the help of Father Neale, the ladies began to purchase property in the area in order to expand Visitation. In 1816, Pope Pious II admitted the pious ladies and several others to the Visintine order. In 1828, Visitation was granted a charter and thus officially recognized.
Father Neale was President of Georgetown until 1806, when he returned to Baltimore to resume his duties as archbishop. Upon his departure, he appointed Father Joseph Picot de Cloriviere to take over his duties at Visitation. De Cloriviere provided a key element to Visitation that Neale could not: He taught the nuns the finer points of education. Under de Cloriviere, Visitation flourished. In 1821, the chapel at Visitation was consecrated, making it the first chapel of the Sacred Heart in the United States. The altar piece was donated by Charles X, a friend of Cloriviere. Originally the chapel was only as tall as a two-story building, but in 1857 it was raised to tower above the neighborhood. In 1823, the remains of Archbishop Neale were moved into the crypt of the Visitation Chapel, thereby linking indelibly the University and Visitation.
Visitation continued to expand geographically as well. In 1824, a new building was constructed on the corner of 35th Street and Volta Place. Visitation was growing so rapidly that the building was torn down in 1872 to make room for a much larger?and still used—facility. By 1836, Visitation was flourishing, and the sisters decided to build a second school in another location. Founded by Sister Mary Austin Barber and located in Kaskaskia, Ill., the second school symbolized the upward momentum of the nuns and their passion for education.
The future of Visitation was jeopardized during the Civil War, when the Union army planned to seize it and convert it to a field hospital. However, General Winfield Scott, whose daughter, Sister Mary Emmanuel, is buried in the cemetery, intervened and saved Visitation. In 1876, the University decided to use blue and gray as its colors, to signify the union of the North and the South: The first banner displaying these colors was sewn by Visitation girls.
When the first prospectus for Georgetown Visitation was published, it stated that the curriculum would include reading, writing, arithmetic, English, grammar, geography, history, and plain and ornamental needlework. However, the nuns were anxious to expand their level of education beyond the subjects they taught to the girls. Being cloistered and thus unable to leave the convent, higher education seemed virtually impossible. The problem was overcome, however, when the nuns arranged for Jesuits from the University to conduct regular summer school sessions and sporadic sessions throughout the year. The classes during the school year were small because the convent was home to relatively few nuns, and therefore were conducted on almost an individual basis. Although the program was begun in 1913, it wasn’t until 1919 that the nuns first received diplomas. The rules of enclosure coupled with the busy schedules of the Jesuits made instruction an arduous task. Despite these challenges, Sister Berchmans Dugan and Sister Stanislaus Nolen received bachelor’s of arts degrees, and Sister Jean Frances Libell received a higher-level degree. The nuns became the first females to be granted degrees by the University. Although it was a great achievement, there was no formal announcement made, and the names of the nuns were left off the commencement program.
MYTHS AND LEGENDS
There are numerous legends that circulate on both Georgetown Visitation and Georgetown University’s campuses. The most well-known Visitation legend is that of the wall. In 1921, Georgetown Visitation established an all-girls junior college on the premises, garnering the attention of the all-male student body at Georgetown University. It became every Georgetown male’s goal to ascend the dividing wall on 37th Street and to enter the forbidden girls campus. It is said that John Barrymore, who attended Georgetown but never graduated, actually accomplished this feat. The girls often came to Georgetown’s campus-through the front gates, not over the wall– for dances in Copley Lounge and other formal events. Between 1921 and 1964 (when the junior college was shut down) 75 to 80 percent of junior college graduates married Georgetown students. Given the ratio, it is not hard to imagine the loss felt by the Georgetown boys when the junior college closed its doors. A 1964 article in The Hoya lamented how Georgetown men would soon lack dates on the weekends and how the challenge of climbing the wall would cease to exist.
Another myth deals with the accumulation of land by both the University and Visitation. It is rumored that the University purchased land around Georgetown and simply gave it to Visitation. However, the nuns bought their own land from the beginning, save for the first house purchased by Father Neale. In the 1950s, Visitation sold the University the land on which St. Mary’s stands. Visitation also used to own the land on which the Cloisters is built. The nuns offered Georgetown exclusive rights to purchase the land for 10 years, but the offer was ultimately refused by the University, much to the chagrin of current architectural planners.
Although the president of Georgetown and the nuns of Visitation have historically had a good working relationship, there is a legend that suggests that perhaps some presidents got along with the nuns better than others. It is said that Father Patrick Healy, who was President from 1873 to 1882, had a chart in his office with a picture of each of the Visitation sisters. Whenever one died he would mark through her picture with a large red “X”. This rumor is undocumented, but is certainly evocative of some kind of tension between the two schools.
VISITATION TODAY
After the dissolving of the junior college in 1964, Visitation became a boarding preparatory school. The school became a day school in 1975. There are currently 453 girls enrolled at Visitation, with the number of applicants increasing dramatically each year.
The bond between Visitation and Georgetown remains strong. In 1993, a fire devastated Visitation, completely destroying the historic Founder’s Hall and damaging several other buildings. On seeing the smoke, Father Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., the president of Georgetown at the time, opened the campus to the nuns. He put GUTS buses at their disposal and lodged them in Village C while helping them sort out insurance claims and public relations matters. It is felt on Visitation’s campus that this exemplified the strong relationship between the two schools. In 1994, Visitation began holding its commencement ceremonies in Gaston Hall, where they have been held ever since. The girls use the University libraries and also have the opportunity to take classes at Georgetown through a bridge program established approximately 15 years ago. The needlework requirement has been removed from the curriculum, and the girls now follow the traditional high school course of study. Students at Visitation are also integral parts of the Georgetown community due to a service requirement. Before she is awarded a diploma, each girl must log at least 80 hours of community service.
Upon graduation, few students choose to attend the University. Having attended high school in Georgetown, most girls are ready for a new environment, according to Visitation President Sister Mary Berchmans. Recently, Visitation received a rave review from the Middle States Accreditation Committee that cited its two-hundred-year tradition as the foundation for future success.
FROM THE MOUTHS OF ALUMNAE
Isabel Mueller (CAS ‘04) graduated from Visitation in 2000. She remembers using Lauinger Library for term papers during her junior year, and during her senior year she was a “special student” who had the privelege of taking advanced Spanish classes at Georgetown. Mueller was a soccer player and can remember male Georgetown students walking past the field on 35th Street and cheering them on. Many times the field would be littered with beer cans, and the girls speculated that they came from the male Georgetown fans.
“I made friends in class, and partied in Henle and down in New South, that’s part of the reason I came here,” said Mueller about her senior year at Visitation. “Seven of us from my class came here,” Mueller said.
“You could hear Red Square and when they used to have Block Party, we’d sit outside and hear college going on around us and think that we couldn’t wait to get out of [high school],” Mueller said.
Mueller started the club soccer team at Georgetown with another Visitation alumna, Pilar O’Brien (CAS ‘04). This year they were able to play their games on Visitation’s field.
“We used our alumni relations to get in; their field space is coveted,” Mueller said in regards to commandeering space at Visitation that has been denied to several other groups from Georgetown University, including the club lacrosse team. “The Head Master would some out and watch our games and cheer us on,” she said.
Several other Visitation alumnae decide to come to Georgetown as well, but when friends from other universities come home, Mueller said, all they want to do is go to Georgetown to party. “The friendships is where it lies,” said Muelki, explaining what will keep her tied to Visitation forever.
Another Visitation alumna, Kristin Thorne (CAS ‘04) remembers when the boys from Henle would sit outside on their couches and heckle her and her classmates, trying to get the girls to come up to the fence during their gym class or soccer practice. “Now I live in Henle and I see guys doing it and I tell them it’s gross; I was one of them once,” Thorne said. Thorne also added that Visitation students are required to use Lauinger Library for English term papers. “We always changed though, before we came over [to Georgetown]. It was intimidating coming on to a college campus; we didn’t want anyone to see us in our uniforms,” Thorne said.
Evelyn Trevor Holm attended Visitation for her senior year before enrolling at Tulane University. She lives in the area now and says, “I remember thinking it was weird that we were so close but yet so separate. It was surprising that there was no connection. I knew a lot of students wanted to go to Georgetown though, and a lot get in.” Holm has fond memories of specific teachers from Visitation and still keeps in touch with some of the sisters. Her husband David Holm coaches football at Georgetown.
Georgetown’s administration has strong ties to Visitation. Dean of Admissions Charlie Deacon’s daughter Kelly Deacon (MSB ‘03) attended, as well as Georgetown College Dean Jane McAuliffe and now, her daughter.
Georgetown’s field hockey team is dense with Visitation alumnae as well with at least two girls, Beth Gagnon (MSB ‘04) and Shelby Samperton (CAS ‘04), who have come over from next door to attend Georgetown.
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For more than 200 years the two schools have had a connection that goes deeper than proximity. They share educational resources, facilities and educate many of the same students through high school and college, building relationships and ties that will last forever.
