St. Mary College

St. Mary's College students doing Maypole dance

St. Mary College (or St. Mary's College)

Location: 4100 South Fourth Street, Leavenworth Kansas, USA

Founded: 1859 as St. Mary's Insitute. Moved to current location and renamed St. Mary's Academy in 1870. In 1923, renamed St. Mary College.

Closed: Went fully residentially co-ed in 1988, though it started admitting a "few men" in "certain areas of study" as early as 1932. Name changed to University of St. Mary in 2003.

From the college website:

The Sisters of Charity, the founders of the University of Saint Mary, settled in Leavenworth, Kan. in 1858 longing for a location to serve the “wild frontier." Within days of their arrival in the oldest city in Kansas, the Sisters began teaching boys and girls in the area – a tradition that continues today.

Just a year later, the Sisters opened the first boarding school for girls in downtown Leavenworth. Filled to capacity with women from Kansas, Missouri, and the territories later admitted to the United States as Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah, the Sisters opened a new boarding school at the university’s current location in 1870 called St. Mary’s Academy.   

The academy thrived, and in 1923 it became Saint Mary College, a junior college for women. In 1932 the college grew into a four-year institution. While admitting men to most of its programs, the academy did not become residentially co-ed until 1988.

Photo: Date, setting of photo not cited.