The larger photo is of the 1st class of novices at the Seminary.
The Arrival of the Friars in Western New York, p. 8
The
first building of what was to become St. Bonaventure University was actually
just one part of a much larger planned structure.
Sixty feet long and forty-five deep, it would provide the housing for the
friars. The monastery would move to
a similar building constructed to the east in 1862.
The original structure became the seminary and the two were joined by a
Church in 1869, creating a structure one hundred sixty feet long, and three
stories high.
The larger photo is of the 1st class of novices at the
Seminary.
The
building was dedicated October 8, 1858. A
Solemn High Mass was celebrated in the chapel of the new monastery and, thus,
with due ceremony, St. Bonaventure’s College and Seminary was born.
