The Novitiate
In 1906 the first Marist Brothers postulant (an applicant to the Marist Order}
was sent from Poughkeepsie to Canada for his training. He could not speak
French and soon left as he found it impossible to adjust. It was obvious that
an English-speaking American Novitiate would be needed. Thanks to a
$28,000 interest-free loan, the Bech estate, which was on 75 acres south of
the Waterworks Road, was purchased.
Edward Bech had contracted with Detlef Lienau, a prominent architect, to
construct, in stone, a series of buildings which would serve as a homestead, a
stable, a gardener's house and gate
house. The homestead, the main building
on the Bech estate, was used as a
Novitiate by the Marist Brothers. It
housed the postulants and the novices.
The original house had two towers as
seen in the accompanying photo.
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The stable
(Greystone}, the
gardener's house
(St.
Peter's} and the
gate house (Kieran
House} were built in the style of Gothic Revival
architecture. The main house was never built because
Edward Bech died before it was started.
The buildings were in good condition and with an
additional loan of $4,500 some needed renovations were
carried out. While the brothers occupied the main
homestead, the top floor was completed by joining the
two towers.
In 1908 this Novitiate was formally
opened with 12 postulants. As part of this
property a dormitory called St. Mary's was
built separate from the main building.
There was also a bee house with
apparatus to extract honey from the 30
beehives which were tended by the
novices. An interesting aside with respect
to this bee house is that it was













constructed with lumber salvaged from the roller coaster from the Woodcliff
Amusement Park which burned in the mid 1940s. This had been a popular
amusement park for people coming from New York City.
The dayliner, a tour boat from New York City, used to leave, stop at West
Point, Poughkeepise at Woodcliff Park and go on to north of Kingston.
Passengers were dropped at each of these stops and picked up by the boat
on its return trip to
NYC.
The property
occupied by this amusement park was
later purchased by Marist College and
now is the location of Gartland town
houses which are occupied by resident
students of Marist College.
In August 1949 the novitiate was moved
to Tyngsboro, Massachusetts. In the
early
1950s
the building was used to
house the Marist Brothers who were
spending their summers building Marist
College. This building, now demolished
was located on land which is now to the
north side of the entrance to the Mccann
parking lot.
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Project Directors
Dr. Brian Henry Desilets
Dr. Linus Richard Foy
John Patrick Noone
From the beginning, Marist Heritage has been a collaborative effort.
We appreciate the contributions of the Marist Brothers and the Marists All
community, who by supplying information and personal memories, have given vitality,
scope and depth to this project
Under the guidance and direction of Dr. Brian Henry Desilets, the initial web pages
were designed and created by the following Marist College students: Michele van
Brero (Hermitage, St. Peter's, Kieran Gate House, Greystone, Marist Brothers
Builders, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Chapel) ..... Tage Haun (Bech Homestead, Marian,
Donnelly) ..... Fang Fang Xu (Boat House, Byrne House, Kirk House) ..... Courtney Gutt
(Bech Family History) ..... Vij lyer (Cemetery) ..... Rahkee Chopra (Fontaine Hall).
All the final Marist Heritage web pages were either created, revised, rewritten
and/or reshaped by John Patrick Noone, who is solely responsible for any errors
contained therein.
We thank Richard Branigan for proofreading the Marist Heritage web pages.
We recognize the contributions of our consultants: John Ansley for his input on the
format and contents of the various web pages. Also Victor VanCarpels for his
frequent consultations and guidance in the graphics included in this CD. His
patience and dedication while working with us made the overall results more
professional.
We are grateful to Barbara McMullen for the use of the Ecommerce facility at Marist
College.
We are indebted to the Mccann Foundation which provided the funds necessary to make
this project a reality.
John Patrick Noone, editor
November 15, 2002
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