Today in Wheeling History: June 9—Three-day celebration of the Golden Jubilee at Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy concludes (1898).
On June 9, 1898, the Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy concluded three days of elaborate festivities marking the fiftieth anniversary of its founding. The celebration began June 7 with a Solemn Pontifical Mass at the chapel, celebrated by Bishop Patrick J. Donahue and attended by distinguished church dignitaries, including Archbishop Sebastian Martinelli, the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, and Archbishop John J. Kain of St. Louis, who delivered the principal address. A special train carried roughly 250 guests from the city that first morning. That evening, students performed Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado" before a capacity crowd. June 8 opened with a Pontifical Requiem Mass offered for Bishop Richard V. Whelan, revered as the institution's founder, who had invited eight Visitation Sisters from Baltimore to Wheeling on April 4, 1848, originally establishing the school at 14th and Eoff Streets as the Wheeling Female Academy. The jubilee concluded June 9 with formal commencement exercises at 8 o'clock in the evening. Archbishop Kain's address traced the school's modest beginnings through its 1865 relocation to a hundred-acre hilltop campus on the former Steenrod Farm, then three miles outside the city limits along the National Road, where it was renamed Mount de Chantal in honor of Saint Jane de Chantal, co-founder of the Visitation Order. That entire area, along with surrounding communities, was annexed into Wheeling in 1920. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, the academy graduated its last class on May 31, 2008, after 160 years of operation. Wheeling Hospital purchased the property in 2011 and demolished the building that November. In 2013, Wheeling Jesuit University honored the sisters' legacy by opening the Mount de Chantal Conservatory of Music.
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library – Mount de Chantal history (https://tinyurl.com/2u74pu47), Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy – Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/2zpsjs56), Mount de Chantal Alumnae Association (https://tinyurl.com/4av9kzbe), e-WV - Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy (https://tinyurl.com/4ks2fz27), Wheeling Register - "Golden Jubilee of Mt. de Chantal" (https://tinyurl.com/58xew8fj)
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Wikimedia Commons, Wheeling Register
On June 9, 1898, the Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy concluded three days of elaborate festivities marking the fiftieth anniversary of its founding. The celebration began June 7 with a Solemn Pontifical Mass at the chapel, celebrated by Bishop Patrick J. Donahue and attended by distinguished church dignitaries, including Archbishop Sebastian Martinelli, the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, and Archbishop John J. Kain of St. Louis, who delivered the principal address. A special train carried roughly 250 guests from the city that first morning. That evening, students performed Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado" before a capacity crowd. June 8 opened with a Pontifical Requiem Mass offered for Bishop Richard V. Whelan, revered as the institution's founder, who had invited eight Visitation Sisters from Baltimore to Wheeling on April 4, 1848, originally establishing the school at 14th and Eoff Streets as the Wheeling Female Academy. The jubilee concluded June 9 with formal commencement exercises at 8 o'clock in the evening. Archbishop Kain's address traced the school's modest beginnings through its 1865 relocation to a hundred-acre hilltop campus on the former Steenrod Farm, then three miles outside the city limits along the National Road, where it was renamed Mount de Chantal in honor of Saint Jane de Chantal, co-founder of the Visitation Order. That entire area, along with surrounding communities, was annexed into Wheeling in 1920. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, the academy graduated its last class on May 31, 2008, after 160 years of operation. Wheeling Hospital purchased the property in 2011 and demolished the building that November. In 2013, Wheeling Jesuit University honored the sisters' legacy by opening the Mount de Chantal Conservatory of Music.
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library – Mount de Chantal history (https://tinyurl.com/2u74pu47), Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy – Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/2zpsjs56), Mount de Chantal Alumnae Association (https://tinyurl.com/4av9kzbe), e-WV - Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy (https://tinyurl.com/4ks2fz27), Wheeling Register - "Golden Jubilee of Mt. de Chantal" (https://tinyurl.com/58xew8fj)
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Wikimedia Commons, Wheeling Register
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