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Mount Aloysius

Mount Aloysius has its roots in St. Aloysius Academy which was established in 1853 in Loretto, PA -- five miles north of Cresson. A convent for Sisters of Mercy had been started there in 1848, called St. Aloysius, on land given to the Catholic Church by Captain McGuire who claimed the title of first white man to settle in what is now Cambria County.

St. Aloysius Academy at Loretto,
later a children's home.

The nuns established the St. Aloysius Academy, a girls bording school. The Academy grew in popularity and enrollment increased year by year, until it became desirable to find the institution a new home. In 1891 thirty five acres were purchased across from the Mountain House at Cresson. The new Academy, re-christened Mount Aloysius Academy, was opened on June 16, 1897. Here is how the place was described in an 1899 publication:

The attention of the visitor to Cresson is at once attracted by the picturesque symmetrical building, simple in outline, massive and graceful in form and refined in detail. The entire length of the front is two hundred and twenty feet, with a wing of one hundred and eighty feet. Entering the building through the main center entrance, a spacious vestibule, with an Italian mosaic floor opens on both sides to the arched cloister or loggia, and gives admittance to the main hall. This is paneled in oak, and the ceiling is heavily beamed in the same wood. The spacious corridor crossing the entrance hall intersects with corridors extending down the center of the wings. The building throughout is finished in natural woods and hard wood floors. It is warmed by steam, and at night made brilliant by electricity.

A Junior College was established at the Academy in 1939. In 1961 the high school (Academy) was closed, leaving just the Junior College in operation. In 1968 the Junior College became coeducational. In 1991 the Mount Aloysius Junior College became Mount Aloysius College, and bachelor's degrees were offered. In 2000 the College added master's degrees to it's educational offerings.

Today, Mount Aloysius College is an accredited, coeducational Catholic private college with about 1,000 full time students and 400 adult education students.

Mount Aloysius Academy, 1930s