Mount Saint Agnes College collection

Mount Saint Agnes College was a Catholic women's college located in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland and operated by the Sisters of Mercy. In 1853 the original land was purchased by Elias Heiner and George Gelbach, Jr. to build Mount Washington Female College. Mount Washington Female College was chartered in 1856, but the College closed during the Civil War and after the war the land was bought and sold numerous times. Eventually, the property was sold to Charles Dougherty, who purchased the land for the Sisters of Mercy in 1867. Because Charles Dougherty bought the land, and later sold it to the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters changed the name to Mount Saint Agnes, the name of his wife.

Mount Saint Agnes Academy, a preparatory school, was opened in September 1867. The first “directress” was Sister Mary de Chantal Digges, who served until 1871. The Sisters bought the property from Dougherty in 1870. On March 24, 1890, a bill was approved unanimously by the Maryland State Senate that gave Mount Saint Agnes Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies and Preparatory School for Little Girls the right to confer degrees. This power was not exercised until 1899, when the program had been developed to the satisfaction of the college’s authorities. However, the impact of the First World War brought a diminution in the College’s enrollment, so it was decided to close the College in 1918, leaving only the elementary and high school groups. In 1933, a junior college was begun under the powers granted by the 1890 charter, and a junior class was added in September 1946 to begin the evolution to a four-year college. The re-established Mount Saint Agnes College graduated its first class in June 1948 and was accredited by the Middle States Association in 1949. In 1971, Mount Saint Agnes merged with nearby Loyola College in Maryland, which still oversees the Mount Saint Agnes Alumnae Association. The college closed as its own degree-granting institution in 1972.

Sources:

"Mount Saint Agnes College," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Saint_Agnes_College. Accessed 2 October 2018.

"Keynotes," the Student Handbook of Mount Saint Agnes College.