St. John’s University Used to Be in St. Cloud; Why They Moved

St. John's University originated in St. Cloud on the shores of the Mississippi River in 1856.  There is a plaque on the Beaver Island trail commemorating that.  St. John's relocated to St. Joseph in 1858 before moving again to its current location at Indianbush aka, Collegeville in 1866.  To help tell the story of St. John's University buildings, I was joined by St. John's/St. Ben's Archivist Peggy Roske.  She says the reason St. John's moved from St. Cloud to St. Joe was because the monks, who established St. John's lost the claim to the property, on the south side of St. Cloud, to a couple of bachelor farmers.  The farmers told the monks they could have the property if they took care of them in their old age, which Roske says they did.  She says the claims were later contested and lost but by that time the monks had already moved out of town.

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The monks resettled the University in Indianbush a.k.a. Collegeville in 1863.  They built a frame house and log house first.  They relocated the frame house to what is currently the St. John's University campus next to Lake Sagatagan 2 years later.  The log house burned down.  Roske says the oldest building on campus is in the southeast portion of the quad.  The quad was assembled from 1868 to 1886 and was always just known as "the quad".  A chapel was built across the lake in 1872, but it later burned down.  It was rebuilt in 1915 and was called the Stella Maris Chapel.  Roske says that was the first building on campus with a name, not just a function.

Roske indicates the early names of the buildings were named after their function like, the church, the science hall, the gym, etc... In the early 1900s St. John's started using saints names to name buildings.  Some of those include St. Francis Hall which was built as a convent to house the sisters who helped with the food service on campus.  St. Gregory Hall was built in 1907 as an infirmary, which is now student housing.  The science hall was later named Engel Hall after Abbot Peter Engel. In 1999 St. John's renamed Engel Hall Simons Hall for the Simons family, who donated money for the renovation.  St. Luke Hall and St. Benet Hall are both residence halls on campus named after saints.  Others include St. Mary Hall, St. Bernard Hall, St. Boniface Hall, St. Patrick Hall, St. Thomas Hall, Elizabeth Ann Seton Village, and St. Vincent Court Apartments.

Abbot Rupert Seidenbush was the first Abbot at St. John's.  An apartment building on campus is named after him.  Seidenbush was also the first bishop of the St. Cloud Diocese.  Virgil Michael House was named for a monk in the 1930s, who was nationally known for his involvement in the liturgical movement.  The Dietrich Reinhardt Learning Center is named after St. John's 11th President, Dietrich Reinhardt.  He served as President from 1991 - 2008.

St. John's has many athletic complexes named after donors or former coaches.  Details on that coming soon in another post on WJON.com.  If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Peggy Roske, it is available below.