Incarnate Word College

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I tell it to you. Some institutions just have a way of growin into something bigger than anyone planned. The Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word got a teaching charter in 1881, and that was the seed.

Modest enough on paper. A charter. A mission.

A calling. But you know how seeds work in Texas soil. By 1893, something real had taken root.

A boarding and day school, known as Incarnate Word Academy, was established, and young women were comin to learn. Then came the part that tends to surprise people. By 1909, a collegiate program had developed right out of that Academy.

Not built from scratch somewhere else. Grown. From the same roots.

And in 1910, the first bachelor's degree was conferred. Think about that moment, somebody walkin away with a degree from an institution that had started as a teaching charter less than three decades before. The college has been planted at this very site since 1897, and after 1921, the Academy and the college became separate institutions, each with its own work to do, its own students to shape.

The marker calls it an important part of the educational endeavors of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, and that's not ceremony talkin. That's a straight account of what one charter, one mission, and one piece of San Antonio ground managed to become.

What the marker says

Noted for quality educational programs, this institution grew from a teaching charter granted in 1881 to the sisters of charity of the incarnate word. In 1893 a boarding and day school known as incarnate word academy was established. By 1909 a collegiate program ha developed from the Academy, and the first bachelor's degree was conferred in 1910. After 1921, the academy and the college became separate institutions. An important part of the educational endeavors of the sisters of charity of the incarnate word, the college has been located at this site since 1897.