Not all historic institutions have founding fathers. The University of the Incarnate Word has a whole sisterhood in its background.
Today, the 154-acre campus at Broadway and Hildebrand is the largest Catholic university in Texas. But in 1900, it was still just a school for elementary through high school on the fourth floor of a newly built motherhouse for the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, a religious order that came to the Alamo City in 1869.
One of the earliest photographs of that school is from around 1915. In it, a group of young women stroll down Sacred Heart Avenue, a carriage-lined path that then led straight to the motherhouse.
More than a century later, those surroundings have changed, with more buildings, paving and parking. But the spirit of the women who established Incarnate Word still graces the grounds.
“I look at that (photo) and … I also see the vision of those women and the courage they had and the faith to acquire that much land and to know the city was growing in that direction,” said Sister Mary Henry, director of the Heritage Center of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, which preserves the history of the Sisters of Charity and the university they founded, as well as the sisters’ worldwide ministries.
But Donna Guerra, director of archives for the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, sees additional aspects in the 1915 photo. Guerra noted the photo also features women of Mexican and American descent, which reflects San Antonio’s own cultural diversity. And at a time when women still could not vote or access other privileges men had, Guerra said the image also shows the freedom a sister’s habit could give the women who took it.
“You would think a religious life might be more restrictive,” Guerra said. “In fact, it was more liberating in many regards.”
That did not mean it was easy. “These are people that didn’t let challenges get in the way of making (Incarnate Word) happen,” Henry said.
The story of the university’s founding really started in 1869 when
the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word arrived in San Antonio from Galveston, where the order was founded.
By the end of the 1800s, they had established San Antonio’s first private hospital, Santa Rosa Infirmary, which in turn had led them to build the city’s first orphanages and expand their educational ministry in the city, Guerra said.
In 1892, the sisters established the first Incarnate Word School, a coed elementary and secondary school with around 50 students in a rented house on Avenue D near the Sunset Depot by what is now the Alamodome. The following year, the sisters and school moved to a larger space just north of downtown in Government Hill. But once again, a growing order and student body had the sisters in search of a new home.
That growing need took the sisters several miles north to the headwaters of the San Antonio River. In 1897, they purchased the 283-acre former estate of San Antonio banker and philanthropist George Brackenridge.
The parties settled on a staggering price of $100,000 for the land, around $3.3 million today, financed over 25 years at 5 percent interest.
“They were incredible fundraisers,” Guerra said. “And they needed to be in order to make ongoing payments on this purchase. And there were some months when it was extremely challenging.”
The sisters converted Brackenridge’s former mansion, now known as Brackenridge Villa, into their first motherhouse, which also was home to the elementary and secondary school. A new motherhouse was designed by architect Alfred Giles just east of the original and completed in 1900.
Henry noted that up until the early 1900s, colleges and universities were mainly just for men. But that was changing with a trend of more Catholic academies evolving into women’s colleges. In 1909, the Sisters of Charity added college courses to Incarnate Word School, which was renamed the College and the Academy of the Incarnate Word.
Incarnate Word joined the Texas Association of Colleges in 1920 as a senior college. Growing enrollment again called for more space, so the school and convent ultimately separated. In 1922, the new focal point of the campus, the Administration Building, was completed. That building also was known as the Columkille Administration Building after the college’s first president, Mother Columkille Colbert, the first religious Texas woman to earn a PhD.
In her roughly 40 years as Incarnate Word president, Colbert strove to make it a leading women’s college. Henry noted that if a girl’s family could not afford tuition, Colbert was willing to accept a cow or produce as payment.
“Anything for the young woman to have the opportunity for an education,” Henry said.
As Incarnate Word College grew, the high school portion of the campus moved west on Hildebrand to its current home, which opened in 1950. Incarnate Word High School remains an all-girls’ school, while Incarnate Word College started admitting male students in 1970. The college became the University of the Incarnate Word in 1996.
As for the original 1900 motherhouse on the Incarnate Word campus, the building was renovated in 1989 to serve as a retirement center where older sisters live side-by-side with nonreligious retirees in the area. The building no longer has a fourth floor, though its original facade was preserved.
Henry said she loves what she calls the sacredness of such beautiful buildings and architecture. But when it comes to the University of the Incarnate Word, the real beauty is the campus’ many young women, in and out of habits, over the generations.
rguzman@express-news.net | Twitter: @reneguz
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