History
of Visitation Academy
In September 1846, eleven Visitation nuns arrived from Georgetown
to tend to the educational needs of ten boarding students. At the
request of the Jesuits at neighboring St. John’s Parish, the sisters
conducted a free school for the girls of the parish until 1914 when
the Notre Dame sisters established St. John parochial school. The
Visitation nuns then concentrated on the boarding school, as being
more in the keeping with their rule of cloister.
As time went by, the Academy grew in size and population, adding
three acres of adjacent land, new buildings, cloistered gardens and
many more students. The names enrolled in the registers of the early
days of the school are representative of many prominent pioneer
Catholic families not only of Maryland and Virginia, but of almost
every state in the Union.
The Academy survived Union Army occupation during the Civil War when
it became a hospital for wounded soldiers. During this period, the
Sisters of Charity came from Emmitsburg to nurse the victims of war,
while the sixty stranded boarders found safety and shelter in the
impenetrable enclosure of the monastery. There, classes for the
girls went on as usual.
The Academy has since flourished as an educational institution,
changing with the times. In June of 1950, the Visitation high school
closed while the elementary school continued to flourish. In the
spring of 2005, at the bequest of Rome, the historic legacy of the
beloved Visitation sisters came to a quiet close. The remaining
sisters retired to a monastery in Rockville, Virginia, and the last
class of boarding student graduated.
Today, the Visitation Academy continues its legacy of serving as a
premier single-sex institute of learning rooted in the catholic
tradition. Here, the past and present intermingle to provide the
best educational setting for the young women of historic Frederick
and surrounding areas.
|
Resource Links
PowerSchool
The Chimes
SUMMER CAMP 2008
SCRIP Program
Flynn &
O'Hara Uniforms
|
