Visitation Academy of St. Louis history

Father Neale’s being raised to Archbishop of Baltimore in 1815 enabled communication directly with Rome.

Founded in 1819, the Benevolent School had always been independent from the academy.

In 1829, Sister Gertrude oversaw the new dormitory’s construction to accommodate increasing enrollment and expanded campus beyond the one-block radius with the acquisition of more lots along P Street.

In 1833 eight of the Sisters were ordered to travel west and establish a school in the near-abandoned town of Kaskaskia, Illinois.

The Cass Avenue convent and school opened in 1858.

Alumna Bertha Honoré (later Palmer), class of 1867, may have learned art appreciation at Visitation, going on to amass the largest collection of Impressionist art outside of France.

A published historian, Sister Mary Baptista Linton, authored, in 1885, an award-winning educational system for teaching history, called the Linton Century Charts.

She had become a prominent writer and poet who established the literary magazine, Poetry, which she edited until her death in 1912.

And perhaps it is this regular contest that transformed into the tradition of Marshmallow Roast, which can be documented as early as 1913.

In 1917, the school restructured to accommodate four grammar school classes and four at the high school level, along with two post-academic years being offered to graduates.

The title page from a 1933 booklet celebrating the Academy’s 100th anniversary

The Salesian Network was started in 1988, which was a way of naming and explaining Visitation charism, which the Sisters had always shared by example.

The two buildings were completed in October 1998 and dedicated at a kickoff celebration for the bicentennial, with many events during that academic year to acknowledge Visitation’s two hundredth anniversary.