Annals of St. Ann's Hermitage: 1904

For sometime now, but more particularly since the foundation of our establishments in New England and New York, the need was being felt for a house of formation for English-speaking recruits. Clearly we had to train teachers for the schools we had in the United States and for those we were being asked to open there, without considering that such a house, naturally, would become the center of a new province, the necessity of which was inevitable sooner or later.

It was the preoccupation particularly of our dear Brother Stratonique, then Assistant General, who later became Superior General.

In 1904 during his trip as delegate for the scheduled visit to the establishments of the region, he made known his thinking on the matter to His Excellency Archbishop Farley of New York, later named Cardinal. He asked him to allow that the projected house be established in his archdiocese.

His Excellency not only granted the requested permission, but expressed the desire that the project be undertaken immediately, and in his letter of approval he included a fine praise of the good done by the Brothers. [The Marist Brothers had three establishments in Manhattan at that time: St. Jean-Baptiste and St. Ann's Academy, both founded in 1892, and St. Agnes, where we started teaching in 1904.]

Our dear Brother Felix Eugene was Provincial at that time. Not being able to devote all his time to this matter, he put Brother Zepheriny, then Visitor of the Province, in charge of finding a good location for the projected Novitiate.

After much searching on both sides of the Hudson, Poughkeepsie was chosen (The word Pooghkepesingh is an Indian name meaning waterfall, because of the cascade formed by the Fallkill River as it flowed into the Hudson River at that spot.)

In fact, on the other side of the river there was another beautiful spot not far from the Redemptorist Fathers in Esopus, but besides the fact that the means of communication with New York were not as easy as in Poughkeepsie, the Redemptorist Fathers could not guarantee us religious services. This reason especially made us lean towards Poughkeepsie where we would be well assured of religious services, as we will see below.

Poughkeepsie became the ideal spot for us especially because of the spiritual help and never-failing assistance of the Jesuit Fathers established near there in their Novitiate of St. Andrew-on-Hudson.

Let us add also the much appreciated advantage of being near a very important station serving two big railroads and near an active port on the Hudson River.

Thanks to the protection of Good Saint Ann and the gracious help of Rev. Father Jos. Havens Richards, then minister of St. Andrew, the undertaking could be accomplished beyond all our hopes.

Accompanied by Rev. Father Richards, Brother Zepheriny inquired about all the properties on sale in the area. One especially drew his attention, the MacPherson [sic] estate, owned then by a certain Mr. Goodwin. It offered several real advantages. The location, the building, and the price all seemed to be satisfactory and proper to the proposed goal. The large and beautiful rooms inside the building could be easily adapted to religious use: chapel, classrooms, dormitory on the top floor.

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