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Overview

Saint Joseph's College was founded in 1850 in San Jose, CA, making it a very early Catholic institution of higher learning in CA. It was operated by the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, who founded many colleges and universities across the United States. This new, three-story building, located to the immediate northeast of the Church of Saint Joseph, began operations in 08/1892.

Building History

In 1892, Saint Joseph's College operated next to Saint Joseph's Church in Downtown San Jose, CA. An advertisement in the San Jose, California, City Directory, 1892, said of it: Saint Joseph's College "Is situated on San Fernando street between First and Market streets, San Jose. It is intended for day scholars only. Though its a Catholic institution, students of an denomination will be admitted. Built of brick and stone it is one of the handsome building in San Jose; while as a college it has no equal in point of beauty and convenience in the entire valley. It is devided [sic] into three distinct departments--one exclusively used for the preparatory classes, one for the commercial course and the third for the classical. The Commercial department will offer special opportunities to those preparing for a mercantile career. It will comprise a thorough drilling in arithmetic and book-keeping, as also a careful training in penmanship, the studies of history and geography, English grammar, and composition. The Classical department will be complete in every respect. It will embrace Latin and Greek, English grammar and composition, poetry and rhetoric, mathematics, history and geography. Those students who shall have completed in a satisfactory manner the classical course will be entitled to a college diploma. Upon the presentation of this diploma, any student of St. Joseph's College will be admitted without further examination into the scientific course either in Santa Clara College, Santa Clara, or St. Ignatius College, San Francisco. The college will open classes on the first Monday in August, 1892. The tuition will be $40 a year, payable semi-annually in advance."

Rev. B. Calzia was it president in 1892. (See San Jose, California, City Directory, 1892, plate opposite p. 232) By 1896, a Jesuit, Rev. Father D. J. Mahoney was President of Saint Joseph's College.

A publication of the San Jose Mercury newspaper said of the college in 1896: "This College was established in 1850. It is conducted by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus in charge of St. Joseph's Church and is intended for day scholars only. The building is a handsome three-story structure on San Fernando street, and was erected in 1891-2. It has accommodation for 200 pupils and the demand for desks is frequently in excess of the supply." (See Santa Clara County and Its Resources, Historical Descriptive Statistical, A Souvenir of the San Jose Mercury, 1896, [San Jose, CA: San Jose Mercury Publishing and Printing Company, 1896], p. 146.)

PCAD id: 24890