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Volume 055-4 - October 2001 (8 pages)
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Page: of 8
NCHS Bulletin October 2001
SF Parricks
CATHOLIC CHURCH
RS ogee ae ES:
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St. Vincent’s Orphanage, St. Patrick’s Church nd Mt. St. Mary's s Couvent. (Photo from Nevada
County Mining Review, 1895.)
former Sisters’ dining room which was used as a thrift
shop.
A group called “The Historic Preservation Committee”
was formed and soon received corporate status from the
State of California as a non-profit corporation. This organization set about the task of preserving and finding a use for
the empty Academy and St. Joseph’s Chapel.
1971-1980
This decade found the Historical Preservation Committee
engaged in some much-needed fundraising for building restoration. Repairs included a new ground floor, some major
work to support the upper floors, painting and buttresses in
the chapel walls, new heating of the large room off the
chapel, and reinforcement of all the porches. In 1972 the
State of California registered Mt. St. Mary’s Convent and
Academy as a State Historical Monument, noting that it had
been the first orphanage of the northern mines.
On the Thanksgiving weekend of 1975 the Historic Preservation Committee, the Nevada County Historical Society
and the County Bicentennial Committee combined their efforts to open a museum on the second floor of the old Convent. In part the museum consists of a restored old
classroom, an old parlor, a turn-of-the-century doctor’s office and a display of 36 plaques which depict the history of
the old academy, complete with pictures. The Thrift Shop
was relocated to the ground floor. This shop was a significant support for the elementary school conducted by the ~~»,
Sisters of Mercy.
1980-1997
Because it had been determined that to be eligible for state
grants the building must be owned by the corporation making
the application, the Sisters of Mercy on September 11, 1980,
decided to sell the academy building, St. Joseph’s Chapel,
and the large section of gardens in front to the Historic Preservation Committee for the obligatory $1.00. A clause in the
deed guarantees that should the Committee either cease to
exist or change the purpose for which the property was originally intended, it would revert to the Sisters of Mercy.
In time many of the aging Sisters either died or needed
nursing care, so the top floor of the Convent became too
large for the few remaining Sisters. In the period of 19791980 the Omaha Sisters of Mercy made the decision to purchase a home for the remaining four who still were
assigned to Mt. St. Mary’s School. The purchased home
was on Banner View Drive on the outskirts of Grass Valley,
and the remaining Sisters moved into their spacious quarters. Eventually the number of actively teaching Sisters
dwindled to two, and in 1988 the diocese of Sacramento
made a decision to sell the Mt. St. Mary’s School. After
Sister Patricia Connelly left in 1989 and Sister M. Corice
Evans, the last teaching Sister, left in 1991, there were only