100th Anniversary of the Laying of the Villa de Matel Cornerstone - A Brief History

Excerpt: Serving With Gladness - The Origin and History of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Houston, TX
By Sr. Mary Loyola Hegarty, CCVI
 
In the 1920’s the Congregation, led by Mother Mary Teresa O’Gara, decided there was a need to increase housing for the novices and postulants in Galveston. And so, in 1922, Mother Teresa petitioned the Holy See to purchase the land we know now as the Villa campus. An old friend and benefactor, Father Constantineau, O.M.I. helped Mother Teresa select the 72-acre plot. It was a low-lying, swampy area in a completely undeveloped area known as Kinsington. It was so undeveloped that even the US mail had to be entreated to recognize it. Once the land was cleared and fenced, no more funds were available for construction, and nothing was done for about a year.

On February 2, 1924, Mother Placidus Mulcahy and her council petitioned the Holy See for permission to borrow $250,000 to begin construction. On February 24^th, Bishop Byrne presided at the groundbreaking ceremonies for Villa de Matel. Houston’s architect, Maurice J. Sullivan, designed the Villa building and chapel, and the contractor was Mr. James Antil.
By February 1925, the Villa was nearly completed. The first floor contained administrative offices, a community room, sewing room, refectory, kitchen, guest dining room, and parlors.
The second floor contained an infirmary on the east wing for sick and elderly Sisters, the novitiate, postulate, library, classroom, a chemistry and physics laboratories and an auditorium which was used as a temporary chapel. The back, middle of the second floor, features the Via Matrix, a passageway that leads to the choir loft of the chapel.
The third floor was all sleeping quarters of the Sisters, large dormitories for the novices and postulants.

The back of the building on the second and third floors were paved cloisters. The third-floor cloisters were screened in and used for extra sleeping spaces.
On March 8, 1925, the cornerstone of the Villa convent, which came to be known as our motherhouse, was laid by His Excellency, Most Reverend Pietro Fumasoni-Biondi, then the Apostolic Delegate to the United States. The Houston Chronicle estimated that about 10,000 attended the ceremony. The crowd was so large that Bishop Byrne permitted only the clergy, the religious, the orphans, the 200 Knights of Columbus, and members of several sodalities to participate in the procession, which went briefly to the incomplete chapel to bless the altar site.

Houston’s Grand Knight, Arthur O’Connor, was the Master of Ceremonies for the program. Monsignor J. M. Kirwin, Vicar General, gave the principal address. Dr. Joseph Mulle, of St. Joseph Hospital’s staff, expressed appreciation for the services rendered to Houston and Texas by the Sisters of Charity, especially in healthcare.
The convent was ready for occupancy early in 1926, and so, on January 23, 1926, it was privately blessed by Monsignor J. M. Kirwin. Sadly, the following day, he died suddenly, to the grief of hundreds of friends.
In February 1926, the novices and postulants moved to Villa de Matel from Galveston. The transfer of the motherhouse, that is, the official residence of the Mother General and her Council, took place two years later.

On the evening of December 7, 1927, Bishop Byrne came and stayed overnight in the chaplain’s quarters. The next morning, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, he offered the first Holy Mass in the conventual chapel.
The chapel itself has its own history and stories, which deserve to be told on its own anniversary of consecration.
 
Edited by Sr. Deenan Hubbard, CCVI