>t HAVE JUST LEARNED.

without confirmatton, that the Lady of Lourdes

been sold Some concern prevaols as to 1ts ultimate fate Perhaps a revtew of tts
:'> Tory is ttmely For apertod 1n excess of 75 years the buildtng was dedtcated to edu
t 1onal endeavors
. 1840 the property destgnated as Lots 67 4 and 67 5 was purchased tr om the U S
,qvernment for $10 an acre by Wil l tam Cornell . first land commissioner of Dubuque
i:1e authonty says this was the site of a schoolhouse before 1853
f ebr uar y that year M tss Catherine Beecher, prom tnent educator of women tn the
' l <-.1 & sistr of Henry Beecher & Harr iet Beecher Stowe, came to Dubuque to estab
.h a non sectar ian. female semtnary ot the htghest order She offered to endow t he
<; t 1tut ion with $20,000 plu!l $1 000 wort h of books. apparatus and a faculty of four
l ocal c1tizens would erect the bu ,l dng and guarantee a certa1n number of students.
tw land was purchased from Mr Cornell tor $1700 A $15.000 structure was to be
'! erted, the funds raised locally, but $11 000 was secured through loans The Dubuque
r prnale College was to accommodate 500 students but by 1858 attendance and support
'- '' 'P tnsutfictent to meet expenses
\ successton of owners and educational enterprises followed
., January 1859 Dubuque's publ1c high school opened here w1th an enrollment of 110
q udents However, the panic of 1858 and insufficient collection of taxes closed the
-;e hool the following June and the building passed into the hands of creditors .
.C.. Leathers family occupi ed the premises until 1862 when a pri vate co educat i onal
"chool of ' ' higher class" opened with a full program with Greek. French, higher mathe-
nati cs. piano and drawing added Forty students attended
September 1864, the Lee Femal e Seminary, an Episcopalian effort , opened and operated
until March 1872 when the property was sold to the Presbyterians for $10,000.
The German Presbyterian Theological School of the Northwest then moved to thetr new
incation on Delhi Street in 1907, having sold the property t o the Academy of the I m
' laculate Conception for $20,000. The Sisters of St Francis taught a well rounded
1rogram tram 8th through 12 grades By 1925 the school had expanded and forced
rhP order to move to Davis Avenue
I t was then that the building acquired the name of Our Lady ot Lourdes a home for
work ing girls, in combinati on with a conservatory of music for which the former
Col umbia College granted credit .

VERTICAL FILE
year : 1975
Subject: .t: r_MALE St.J;JlNA RY
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. 25
Price:
In T954 the building was pr ivately owned and converted to a convalescent home
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Now it is vacant again. A famous old landmark. Will it meet the fate of other htstoric
buildings? Who removed the onion domes from those Tudor towers and when?
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