Looking Back

Mount Saint Mary College Archive

Remembering Casa San José

The grand opening of the Desmond Center for Community Engagement and Wellness in Guzman Hall is a reminder that the Mount campus is always evolving. It brings to mind the renovations to Hudson Hall in the late 1990s, the 54,000 square foot addition to Aquinas Hall in the late 2000s, and the early 2010s transformation of the Dominican Center into the living and learning space we know today. 

But it seems our memories of Casa San José, which was once nestled between Guzman and Whittaker halls, are fading. 

By 1927, the founding Dominican Sisters had opened Greater Mount Saint Mary, a five-story high school in what’s now known as the Dominican Center. But their focus was not only on the later stages of education: also around this time, a storehouse was rebuilt as the Casa San José, an elementary school. 

The building had served the sisters well in this role for some 20 years, but it had become clear that the school had outgrown Casa San José. In 1950, the new Bishop Dunn Memorial School was accredited by the Middle States Commission on Elementary Education. The school was named after Bishop John Joseph Dunn (1870-1933), a friend and benefactor to the Dominican Sisters in the early days of the campus. Bishop Dunn Memorial School still stands on campus to this day, educating the next generation of local students and aiding Mount teacher candidates in their academic journey. 

The Casa, meanwhile, was converted into office space for Mount employees. The building served many staff members over these next years. Notably, the Career Center – known at the time as the Cooperative Education Program – took up residence in Casa San José in December of 1989, according to former director Janet Zeman. The program at that time was less than a year old.

As the Mount campus headed towards the turn of the millennium, its needs had shifted once more, and Casa San José was decommissioned. In its place stands a meditation area where students, faculty, and staff can enjoy a few quiet moments before returning to their daily activities.