MARYMOUNT COLLEGE, FORDHAM PREP & A FARM IN THE BRONX

 MARYMOUNT COLLEGE, FORDHAM PREP & A FARM IN THE BRONX

-Kevin Bergin

Could A Down & Out All-Women’s College Become The New Home Of An All-Boys Prep School? Well, it was discussed. 

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Marymount College, in Tarrytown New York was an independent, Catholic, women's college in the Westchester County suburbs. In July 2002, Marymount officially consolidated with Fordham University, renaming the college as the Marymount College of Fordham University and becoming the institution's 5th undergraduate school. Enrollment peaked at 1,112 in 1978. But by 2004, it enrolled only 844 students.

Fordham Prep has existed since 1841 on the Rose Hill campus in The Bronx. It was founded along with the University as St. John’s College by John Hughes, the future Archbishop of New York. Six students arrived in Fordham for that opening summer session. The first president of Hughes’ fledgling institution was Rev. John McCloskey, who would later become the first American-born cardinal. In 1846, the Society of Jesus took over operations. During the mid-19th century, little distinction was made between high school and college. An education was a seven-year continuous course of study beginning at age thirteen. Fordham was a boarding school in those days. It was home to students from across the country, as well as from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and South America. 

Moving from Hughes Hall to the former Fordham Farm

Fordham Prep was originally housed in a long-demolished wing of today’s University’s Administration Building, on the Rose Hill campus. Known then as the “Second Division” , it was moved into a newly-constructed Hughes Hall in 1890. During the 80+ years it served as a high school, it was actually owned by Fordham Prep. When they moved to the current location, in the northern corner of the campus, they sold Hughes Hall back to the university and bought the property where Fordham’s Farm once stood. 

Fordham Farm was active from the institution’s inception until just before World War I. 

Hay Mowing - 

Photo courtesy of Fordham Photograph Collection: 

Fordham Digital Collections

Speaking with Lou DiGiorno, the Fordham Prep Historian and Archivist (FCRH Class of ‘88 & GSAS '94) who said, “I can confirm that indeed the two institutions (University and Prep) have been separate entities with separate boards of trustees since 1970. Additionally, the Prep owns its own property, which is subject to an agreement. In exchange for ceding Hughes Hall to the University, the Prep was given its (current) property along with several other guarantees.” 

For those reasons, as well as the need to find larger quarters to support their growing program , after 129 years as one of the founding divisions of Fordham University, Fordham Preparatory School legally separated from the University in 1970 and secured its own educational charter from the New York State Board of Regents.   

NOTE: For those of our generation, Hughes Hall was in a state of transition until 1978 when it closed down, and remodeled. It reopened, as a dormitory, in the Fall of 1980 after the Class of ‘80 graduated. Some 30 year later it again was renovated for classrooms and offices.   

The home of Fordham Prep until the early 1970s, Hughes Hall.

Marymount College was founded by the Nuns of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary in 1907; (Interestingly, that was the same year that St John’s College officially changed its name to Fordham University.)

Marymount College operated on  25-acre nestled in the Westchester County Suburbs.  

In July 2002, Marymount officially consolidated with Fordham University, renaming the college as the Marymount College of Fordham University and becoming the institution's fifth undergraduate school. But by 2005, Fordham announced its plans had changed. The University claimed unjustifiable and disproportionate costs to maintain the large campus and announced their intentions to close the women's college effective June 2007. 

In the press release announcing the phase out, the Board of Trustees of Fordham emphasized that Marymount juniors and seniors who graduated by spring 2007 would complete their degrees at Marymount College (and receive a Fordham degree and diploma), while freshmen and sophomores would complete their degrees in programs offered at one of the other four undergraduate colleges of Fordham University, if they indeed decided to remain at Fordham. The Marymount Sisters were to remain in the residences they occupied at the closing of the school, although their teaching positions no longer existed. The final class of 203 women graduated in May 2007.

Attempt to keep the Marymount campus in the Fordham Sphere.

At the 11th hour, Fordham University offered the Tarrytown campus to Fordham Prep. Trading off the land in Tarrytown, NY for the property where their high school is now located, along with its parking areas and sports fields. This held out the potential for The University to take over the property that runs below Southern Blvd for future expansion; At the same time, the exchange would also allow The Prep to potentially reinvent itself as a border school, complete with residence halls and multiple building sites. 

According to a former member of the Fordham University Board of Trustees, “The Prep rejected this idea, citing that their ‘mission’ was to stay in The Bronx.” 

In a response to an email query, Kenneth Boller, S.J., (B.A. from Fordham) who was then the President of Fordham Prep wrote: "There was an informal offer to swap campuses. It never went anywhere and there were no discussions of terms."  

 

Kenneth Boller, S.J. Pastor 

has served as president at 4 Jesuit high schools :

Canisius H.S., Fordham Prep, St. Peter’s Prep & Xavier H.S.

Additional research has confirmed that many in the Fordham Prep community-alums included-felt strongly about the school remaining in The Bronx-in its home since 1841.

Fordham Prep in the North West Corner of the Rose Hill campus.

On February 17, 2008, Fordham announced the sale of the campus for $27 million to EF Education, a chain of private language-instruction schools. EF Education First (abbreviated as EF) is an international education company that specializes in language training, educational travel, academic degree programs, and cultural exchange.   

EF had approximately 52,000 employees in 116 countries.

This article originally appeared in the Fordham University Class of 1980 Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/groups/537184563628982

#marymountcollege @fordhamprep #educationfirst #CanisiusHS #StPeter’sPrep #XavierHS