As the North American colonies hurtled toward independence, the Society of Jesus, long the face of the Catholic Church in Maryland hurtled toward oblivion. By the time of the U.S. Constitution, the Jesuits had been suppressed in most of the world. As a result, when St. Patrick’s was founded within Washington itself, the pastor was a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. After the restoration of the Society, Jesuits sought to have a church and college close to the center of government, though they already had such an establishment in the distant suburb of Georgetown. In the 1850s, an impatient and elderly benefactor, church politics, and strong-willed Jesuits eventually produced an apostolic center which looked nothing like anyone’s dream, but which eventually produced vibrant works in the midst of a growing city.
On August 7, 1814, Pope Pius VII issued a Papal Bull restoring the Society; seventeen days later British troops burned the capitol, the President’s House and other buildings. While Washington struggled to survive, Jesuits sought to be part of the city. Archbishop Carroll, a Jesuit prior to the Suppression, denied the request of the local Jesuit superior to restore all of the Society’s missions and its jurisdiction over Washington. His successor, Archbishop Leonard Neale, promised in 1816 to do what Carroll had refused and local Jesuits set their eyes on St. Patrick’s Church, whose pastor, Fr. Matthews, invited Jesuits to establish a school on property behind the Church. After a few false starts, Washington Seminary, later Gonzaga, grew on that site.
Early attempts by the Jesuits to gain control of St. Patrick’s Church failed. Some Jesuits clearly hoped to take over the parish whenever Fr. Matthews would move on or die, which he did in 1854. However, the decision by the then Archbishop to appoint a new diocesan pastor seems to have refocused the Maryland Province Jesuits on acquiring a new site. On the Feast of Ignatius 1855, Archbishop Francis Kenrick gave permission for the Provincial, Fr. Charles Stonestreet, to accept the gift of land “in loco dicto ‘Birch’s Hill’ in urbe respublicanae princicipe,Vasintonopoli, fundi in quo erigatur collegium cum eccelesia…” [ in the place called Birch’s Hill in the principle city of the Republic, Washington, on which property to erect a college with a church.]
While the proffered site rising from the banks of the Tiber Creek along First Street N.E. to a peak at the junction of Second, New Jersey Avenue and I Street N.W. may have provided a stunning view of the capitol, it was not to the liking of the Fathers at the Washington Seminary. They sought a cheaper solution closer to the center of business. During the winter of 1855-56, the Rector and others at the Seminary urged Fr. Stonestreet to buy a bankrupt Congregational Church “on Fifth Street opposite City Hall, now owned by a Society called Congregationalist.” The 4,000-square-foot church could be had for about $7,000. The church and college built on free land farther from downtown would prove to be much more spectacular but also expensive.
In the end, the Society accepted the gift of land on North Capitol Street. Ambrose Lynch, father of Fr. Daniel Lynch, S.J., deeded the land to Georgetown in 1857 with the understanding that the land would be transferred to a new Jesuit corporation in Washington when that became possible. It was clearly the intention of Mr. Lynch that his property would be the home of both a church and a college. The deed specifies that the land be used for:educational and charitable purposes to wit to erect on the said piece or parcel of land and premises a College and church. The college to be covered in within four years from the date of these presents and the church to be covered in within two years from the same date.
Only the U.S. Congress could charter corporations in Washington, which they did in 1858.
