St. Mary's

The Saint Mary Dormitory was a two story bungalow built September to October 1941 to expand the Novitiate quarters for postulants and novices for whom sleeping quarters until then was limited to the upper floor of the former Bech house.  The Novitiate was transferred to Tyngsboro in 1949, and Saint Marys was used to house Juniors for a year or two, then became vacant.

When the construction activity under Brother Nilus Vincent Donnelly began, Saint Mary was used to house Brothers who were teaching in Marist schools but volunteered to work on the projects during their summers. The photo above shows a group dining outside during one of the summers.

Saint Mary was used for a year or two for several Lamenais Brothers, a congregation from Maine who studied at Marist in the late 1950s, until the group relocated permanently to Walsh College in Ohio.

The building was used to house the first group of non-commuting lay students in 1960 after their short stay at the Kings Court Hotel.

The nearby combination bee house/cannery was built in 1942 or 1943 using curved beams from the Woodcliff Amusement Park roller coaster to frame and support the roof. 

Summer working Brothers at a Saturday evening picnic honoring Brother Emile Michael, shown with his back to the camera, affectionately known as the crew boss or p'tit Mike (Little Mike).  Brother Mike had worked previously on the Lawrence MA projects in a similar capacity when Brother Nilus was building the gym and classroom building for Central Catholic HS in Lawrence. In his MEMORIES of 75 YEARS, Brother Nilus cites p'tit Mike and Brother Brendan Regis Ginnity, who served as summer chef as the heart and soul of the summer work crews:

"Two of them were to be key men for all our future projects, Brother Brendan Regis (nicknamed Panther) did the cooking and Brother Edward Michael would be construction boss.  without them the whole idea would have floundered." Brother Nilus Vincent Donnelly, MEMORIES of 76 YEARS, pp 25-26 (source: Marist College Land History: Saint Mary Dormitory)

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