Academy of Mount St. Ursula High School - Location and History

Location and History

In 1854, John Casper Metzler (the first pastor of the German language Church of the Immaculate Conception) requested that a group of Ursulines from St. Louis come to his new Melrose parish, at the southern tip of Westchester, to teach. The Sisters, who began the St. Louis work in 1848, had originally come from Oedenburg (now Sopron in Hungary) and Landshut, Bavaria. As their first mission community had grown quickly, the nuns visited the village of Melrose and happily accepted the invitation with the permission of their archbishop, Peter Kendrick. On May 15, 1855, Mother Magdalen Stehlin set out again for Melrose with three companions to actually begin the new work there.

Before the end of the summer there were eleven Ursulines in the area residing with the Hennings and other generous families while the convent school was being built. It is said that Archbishop John Hughes himself chose the site in the village of East Morrisania, near what is now the intersection of Cauldwell and Westchester Avenue. It was a lovely spot, high enough for a view down to the waters of Long Island Sound and surrounded by scattered homes and estates, but also close to the growing business corridor.