DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place — and it's a story worth slowing down for. Now, before Houston was a city of cosmopolitan culture, before the skyline and the freeways and all that noise, it was — by the marker's own words — a small, muddy town. And into that mud, in the year 1873, walked Mother M.
Gabriel Dillon and two sisters. They came at the request of the Reverend Joseph Querat, and they came to teach young girls. But let's back up a little, because this story starts a whole lot further away than Houston, Texas.
The Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament — that's the order we're talking about — was founded in 1625 in Lyons, France. Sixteen twenty-five. That's nearly two and a half centuries before those three sisters set foot in Harris County.
When they finally entered the United States, in 1852, it was at the personal request of the Rt. Rev. John M.
Odin, the first bishop of Texas. A bishop who apparently had a long to-do list and a persuasive pen. They opened their first school in Brownsville in 1853.
Their second in Victoria in 1866. And then — third — Houston. They started, as so many great things in Texas do, in temporary quarters.
The old Franciscan monastery on Franklin. Not exactly where you'd plant a permanent institution, but the sisters weren't thinking temporary. They were thinking three stories.
And by January the third, 1874, they had exactly that. Their own three-story edifice, finished. Facing Crawford, with a courtyard bounded by Capitol and Jackson.
A few months later, boarding facilities opened. The academy was taking shape. In 1878, the State of Texas granted a charter empowering the academy to issue diplomas.
That is the kind of sentence that sounds simple until you sit with it — an official seal of educational authority, in a city that not long before had been mud and ambition in roughly equal measure. Then came 1899, and the Exhibition Hall — an auditorium — was built. Growth kept pressing, so in 1905 another three-story structure was added alongside the original.
And in 1948, that original building itself was replaced. Year after year, generation after generation, two hundred to three hundred pupils annually came through those doors to learn devotions, arts, and sciences. The sisters watched over all of it — and they watched Houston grow alongside it.
The marker names every principal and every superior who guided the academy through the decades, and that list is worth a moment of its own. Mother M. Gabriel Dillon led both as principal and superior from 1873 to 1895 — twenty-two years at the helm of what she helped build.
Mother M. Magdalen Hickey followed, then Mother M. Gertrude Binning, then Mother M.
Scholastica Cantwell, and on down the line: Comerford, O'Mahoney, O'Conner, Sheehan, McHugh, Neilon, Davison, Guokas. Name after name, tenure after tenure — a living chain of women who kept this institution running through every chapter Houston wrote for itself. A religious order founded in France in 1625.
A bishop's request in 1852. A muddy Texas town in 1873. And a school that outlasted its own original walls.
That's what three sisters with a mission and a three-story plan can do.
What the marker says
First permanent Catholic school in Houston. Established by Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, a religious order founded 1625 in Lyons, France. In 1852, at request of the first bishop of Texas, the Rt. Rev. John M. Odin, the order entered the United States to engage in religious education. The sisters opened their first school in Brownsville in 1853; second in Victoria, 1866; and the third here. Mother M. Gabriel Dillon and two sisters came to Houston in 1873 at request of the Rev. Joseph Querat, to begin teaching young girls in temporary quarters at the old Franciscan monastery on Franklin. By Jan. 3, 1874, their own 3-story edifice was finished. Facing Crawford, it had a courtyard bounded by Capitol and Jackson. Boarding facilities opened in a few months. A State of Texas charter empowered the academy to issue diplomas, beginning in 1878. In 1899, the Exhibition Hall (auditorium) was built. To accommodate growth, another 3-story structure was added, 1905. Original building was replaced in 1948. 200 to 300 pupils annually have learned devotions, arts, and sciences under dedicated tutelage of the sisters, who have watched Houston grow from a small, muddy town into a city of cosmopolitan culture. (1973) (see additional data on back) Principals - Mother M. Gabriel Dillon 1873-1895 Mother M. Magdalen Hickey 1895-1905; 1908-1917 Mother M. Gertrude Binning 1905-1908; 1917-1923 Mother M. Scholastica Cantwell 1923-1926 Sister M. Stanislaus Comerford 1926-1930 Mother M. Angelique O'Mahoney 1930-1932 Sister M. Monica O'Conner 1932-1946 Sister M. Agatha Sheehan 1946-1947 Sister M. Sebastian McHugh 1947-1950 Sister M. Joan Neilon 1950-1951 Sister James Philip Davison 1951-1964 Sister Jean Marie Guokas 1964- . Superiors - Mother M. Gabriel Dillon 1873-1895 Mother M. Magdalen Hickey 1895-1905; 1908-1917 Mother M. Gertrude Binning 1905-1908; 1917-1923; 1926-1929 Mother M. Scholastica Cantwell 1923-1926; 1929-1935; 1941-1944 Mother M. Angelique O'Mahoney 1935-1941; 1944-1950 Mother M. Sebastian McHugh 1950-1960 Sister M. Joseph Fluellen 1960-