A 1917 photo of the formal garden and grotto at Mount St. Mary’s Academy in Omaha, showing the beautiful planting of the garden around the grotto. (College of Mount St. Mary’s digital archives)
Mount St. Mary’s Academy was located at 1404 Castelar Street (now the site of the Hillside Senior Apartments), from its. establishment in 1897 until it moved in 1929. In the 1920s, Mount St. Mary College was established at that same location, where it remained until 1955.
By at least 1912 there was a beautiful grotto and garden behind the school. No records of its construction have been found in the College (now University) archives, but the University archivist speculates that the grotto and garden may have been built between the arrival of the Sisters of Mercy in 1888 and the opening of the school in 1897–sometime in the 1890s.
Photos taken in 1912 show that the grotto definitely existed by then. (College of Mount St. Mary’s digital archives)This 1913 closeup photo reveals the texture on the surface of the grotto, as well as the unusual shape of it. The surface may have been covered with a stucco-like material, which was textured to resemble tufa or volcanic rock, perhaps by poking numerous holes in the surface with a rounded stick. The statue of Our Lady stood in the center of the largely symmetrical grotto, and on either side were several stalagmite-like peaks, with arched doorways beneath them on both sides. Quite unusual. (College of Mount St. Mary’s digital archives)
A May 1913 newspaper article included a photo of the grotto:
A newspaper article from May 1913 shows that the grotto may already have been covered by some amount of greenery, indicating that it had been built some years before that. (The Omaha Daily News, May 30, 1913)A 1917 photo of the grounds shows that the grotto stood at the end of a long parklike space with tennis courts at forefront. An allée of trees was planted on the sides of a double sidewalk with a grass panel between–perhaps designed with religious processions in mind. (College of Mount St. Mary’s digital archives)A photo from May 1925, likely of the annual May Day exercises, shows a lush and well-cared for garden in front of the grotto, with American flags demonstrating the patriotism of the school. (Durham Museum)Photos from May 1935 and May 1936 show that though the grotto was still lovely, the garden was far less well-cared for than in the 1925 photo above. This was likely due to the Great Depression (when the school may not have had enough money to pay a gardener or to purchase the annual flowers that had previously been planted in the circle around the fountain), as well as the Midwestern drought of 1933 and 1934. (Durham Museum)
According to the Mount St. Mary University archivist, “Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary operated on Castelar Street until 1929 when it relocated to 27th and Saint Mary’s Avenue and was renamed St. Mary’s High School. In 1955 it moved and merged with other Catholic schools to form Mercy High School, which still operates today on South 48th Street.”
By 1955, when Mount St. Mary’s college moved to its current location, aerial photos show that there was a large, parklike area on the west half of the block. By 1962, a large parking lot and other buildings north of it had been constructed on the site of the garden and grotto:
In 1955 (left), the west half of the block between 14th and 15th Streets (with Castelar at bottom) was still laid out in a park. The grotto garden was likely located at the top (north) of the park, with the allée of trees (shown in the tennis courts photo above) grown into maturity. The circular formal garden may not have survived WWII. By 1962 (right), the park and grotto had been replaced by a parking lot and new buildings.
The statues from the grotto did not find a new home at Mount St. Mary University, but may instead have been moved to another Sisters of Mercy property, according to the University archivist.
