DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some stories start small and grow into something nobody quite saw coming — and the story of Our Lady of the Lake University is exactly that kind of story. It reaches back to an 18th-century French educator named Jean Martin Moye, whose early educational efforts planted seeds that would eventually take root on the edge of a Texas lake.
And it runs through a council of American Bishops meeting in Baltimore in 1866 — a gathering that sent out mandates, and those mandates set a whole chain of events in motion. Bishop Dubuis of Texas didn't waste any time. That same year — 1866 — he traveled all the way to the Lorraine village of St.
Jean De Bassel and recruited sisters from the congregation of Divine Providence to come to Texas. Think about that for a moment. A Bishop from Texas, crossing an ocean, knocking on a door in a French village, saying: we need you.
And they came. Years of work followed — in Austin, in Castroville — quiet, steady work, the kind that doesn't make noise but builds something real. Then in 1895, Mother Florence Walter made a decision.
She relocated the congregation to San Antonio. And the congregation didn't just settle anywhere. They chose a sixteen-acre site on the edge of Lake Elmendorf, in the city's early Lake View Addition.
The plan was a Girl's Academy, and they didn't wait long to open the doors — 1896, offering classes from kindergarten through high school, held first in a four-story brick building standing tall on that lakeside land. Adjacent land was added. New structures went up as the school grew.
By 1911, college courses were being offered for the first time. Eight years after that, the school obtained the status of a senior college. From a foundation of progressive European educational philosophy — the kind that Moye had championed back in the 18th century — Our Lady of the Lake had grown into one of Texas' leading institutions of higher learning.
Started on sixteen acres at the edge of a lake. Look at it now.
What the marker says
The heritage of this Catholic University reflects the early educational efforts of Jean Martin Moye, an 18th-century French educator, and American Bishops at the 1866 council of Baltimore. In order to carry out the council's mandates, Bishop Dubuis of Texas that same year recruited sisters from the congregation of Divine Providence, in the Lorraine village of St. Jean De Bassel, to come to Texas. In 1895, after years of work in Austin and Castroville, Mother Florence Walter relocated the congregation to San Antonio. A sixteen-acre site on the edge of Lake Elmendorf, in th city's early lake view addition, was chosen for the establishment of a Girl's Academy. The school opened in 1896, with offering from kindergarten through high school. Classes were first held in a four-story brick building. Adjacent land and new structures were added as the school grew. College course were first offered in 1911. Eight years later, the school obtained the status of a senior college. Form a foundation of progressive Eruopean Educational pholosophy, our Lady of the Lake Univeristy has developed as one of Texas' leading institutions of higher learning.