Building a Foundation, 1921-1929

"The names of places carry a charge of the people who named them."

—John Steinbeck

College Misericordia began with the purchase of 99 and 2/3 acres of land in Dallas, Pennsylvania, in 1914. Because aspects of both Canon Law and state law prevented the Sisters of Mercy from acquiring the land themselves, they partnered with a committee comprised of local attorneys and businessmen who negotiated directly with the landowner, James M. Boland. Several of these men were members of the first Board of Trustees of College Misericordia at Villa St. Theresa, formed in 1922. Establishing the school, however, was delayed by several years of economic and political uncertainty as a result of World War I.  

The Administration Building was the heart of the original campus. Philadelphia architects F. Ferdinand Durang and Isaac Hathaway Francis designed the building in the collegiate-Gothic style popular in the 1920s. Now known as Mercy Hall, the Administration Building housed the Chapel, dining halls, classrooms, an art studio, dormitories, living quarters for the Sisters, and electrical facilities.

Ground was broken on June 3, 1921, at a ceremony presided over by Bishop Michael John Hoban (1853-1926). A lockbox was placed in the building’s cornerstone (laid on September 24, 1922) to be opened on the school’s centenary in 2024.

As student enrollment and activities increased, it became clear that the Administration Building could not accommodate the Sisters, students, and administrators, as well as teaching and living spaces. A small gymnasium  was built in 1927, first used as a gymnasium and recreational area, and later, as a dormitory for freshmen students. The building It was finally used as a maintenance building before its demolition in 1985.