Stop 21 - Convent / Motherhouse

Convent / Motherhouse c.1910s

Convent / Motherhouse c.1960s

Current Convent

Tour Highlights

• The Dominican Sisters borrowed $20,000 to build the convent in 1889
• Known as the Motherhouse, it was built by Thomas Welsh
• Originally housed in the convent were the Chapel, administration offices, residence for the sisters, the library, and the elementary and high school
• After the 1906 earthquake, the Motherhouse was used as a hospital and a tent city housing 10,000 refugees was erected by Forest Meadows
• The junior college, Dominican College began in 1915 with its first graduates in 1917
• Dominican College became a four year college in 1918
• The Motherhouse burned down in July 1990 and the new convent was completed in 1995

Motherhouse

In the year 1850, when Joseph Sadoc Alemany was consecrated Bishop of California by Pius IX in Rome, he wanted to leave for the capital of California, Monterey. Before he left, he stopped in Paris to find anyone willing to help him, he was particularly looking for women to start up schools in the Dominican tradition of education.During his time, Bishop Alemany inspired one woman, Mother Mary Goemaere, “a novice of the Holy Cross Convent in Paris,” to go with him. What made Mother Mary special to Bishop Alemany was that she was taught for two years in Dominican traditions of religious education and life. After a couple of days, they set sail again for Monterey. Once they arrived, Bishop Alemany acquired the loan of a house for one year, which served as a convent and school. Here soon, they founded the first Mother House in Monterey, the Convent of Santa Catalina, which became the first Dominican College of San Rafael, with its European traditions of education.

The fathers and sisters decided to move to Benicia because of the state of the economy. For a couple of years, the sisters were there, but they soon decided to borrow money and build a regular school, along with dormitories and a convent on higher ground. This was known as St. Catherine’s Academy in honor of St. Catherine of Siena, and for almost forty years held an important place in the field of education because it was one of the first Catholic schools. From the beginning, this school succeeded because the parents deeply recognized the religious and cultural atmosphere of the sisters.

After, in San Rafael, the Mother House was designed by Thomas J. Welsh, a San Francisco architect. It was a huge, four-story, Victorian-style building, built of solid redwood and surrounded by large trees. On July 12, 1990, a devastating fire quickly spread leaving the top two floors badly burned and the bottom two floors significantly water damaged. After the fire, it took about six years to get permission to rebuild the Mother House. Today, the Mother House is known as the Administration Building. The convent archives, offices and a big gathering space where they have funeral services, are all located in the Administration Building.