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INSTALLMENT SEVEN - April 2003 After
the Latin Ban
For the 21-year duration of the Latin Ban that prohibited the teaching of classical languages in the Brothers' schools, the United States Region was stagnant. Few educational institutions opened, and vocations faltered. The lifting of the ban in 1921 coincided with the period of prosperity that the 1920s brought to America, and the District of San Francisco entered a decade of vitality. Christian Brothers High School moved to a new building on Broadway and 21st Streets outside Sacramento's city center in 1924. That same year in San Francisco, a high school was added to St. Peter's; the Brothers left the lower classes to the Sisters of Mercy and assumed the boys' education from 6th through 12th grades. Southern California saw the arrival of Christian Brothers in 1925, first as teachers in a parish middle school for boys, and then, a year later, at Cathedral High School.
1926 brought lasting changes to the "Old Brickpile" in Oakland when the high school department physically separated from Saint Mary's College and was installed in the newly constructed De La Salle Hall on the Peralta Park Campus in Berkeley. (The old Palace of Saint Joseph's Academy continued in use as a residence for boarding students.) The college itself moved to a spacious and graciously designed campus in Moraga in 1928. By 1930, the novitiate in Martinez was feeling hemmed in by the encroaching growth of the city, inducing Brother Visitor Gregory Mallon to purchase the old Theodore Gier Winery in Napa as a new site for the novitiate. In 1932, the move from Martinez to Mont La Salle was completed, a task complicated by the cumbersome winery equipment which had to be ferried across San Francisco Bay and carted to the new hillside property.
In the early part of the century, the Brothers had made a substantial shift in their teaching focus from elementary teaching to high school and college instruction. The reasons for this have been debated, but were certainly helped by the trend of parishes to replace Brothers in elementary schools with nuns. As a result of the shift, young Brothers required greater professional preparation and more education themselves before they taught. The collegiate scholasticate was established in 1922 with the intention of providing them with at least some college education before they were put in charge of a class of students. While it would be many years before all young Brothers could earn a degree prior to their work as teachers, most now had a few years of collegiate study and completed their degrees at summer classes and at night, either at Saint Mary's or at UC Berkeley.
This period of prosperity came to an end with the stock market crash of 1929. As the economic depression settled over the country, the District began to feel the pinch of debts incurred by the moves to Moraga and Mont La Salle and had difficulty meeting payments on the bonds that had been issued for their construction. The situation came to a head in 1936 when the San Francisco District was forced to declare bankruptcy. At Mont La Salle, Brother Visitor Jasper Fitzsimmons went through grueling negotiations to finally arrive at an acceptable payment system for his creditors. Saint Mary's College also found itself in desperate financial straits in July of 1937 when the institution was sold at auction on the steps of the county courthouse in Oakland. Two months later, San Francisco's Archbishop John J. Mitty purchased the college from its holders, allowing the Brothers to continue operation of the college while they repaid their debt. In the case of Mont La Salle, Brother Jasper was finally able to pay off debts in 1943, thanks to the reliable income provided by an increasingly successful winery operation. By 1945, the Visitor had a new but rather pleasant dilemma: how best to use the profits produced by Christian Brothers' wines. Once again, the District had survived a time of trial and could look hopefully toward a promising period of growth in vocations and expansion of schools. Next installment (May 2003) - The Winery Story First
Installment: Pioneer
Brothers Leave New York for San Francisco, July 1868 |
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