Mundelein College was a private Catholic women's college in Chicago, Illinois. Located on the edge of the Rogers Park and Edgewater neighborhoods on the far north side of the city, Mundelein College was founded and administered by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM). In 1991, Mundelein became an affiliated college of Loyola University Chicago. It has since become completely incorporated.
The 14-story Mundelein College Skyscraper Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and was designated a Chicago Landmark in 2007. The building still stands today overlooking Sheridan Road and is home to Loyola's Mundelein Center for Fine and Performing Arts.
History
On November 1, 1929, three days after the stock market crash, the official ground-breaking ceremony for Mundelein College was held. The first four floors of the skyscraper building at 6363 North Sheridan Road were already in place. Mundelein College opened its door for class registration, on September 15, 1930, only nineteen months after construction began. At the close of the college's first academic year, on June 3, 1931, traffic was rerouted, the uniformed bands of St. Mary's High School and Immaculata High School played on the front steps, and the Knights of St. Gregory escorted Cardinal George Mundelein to Mundelein College's official dedication ceremony.Ann M. Harrington and Prudence Moylan, ed., Mundelein Voices: The Women's College Experience, 1930–1991 (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 2001).
Upon his placement to the position of archbishop of Chicago, Mundelein had made the education of Catholics one of his primary goals.Edward R. Kantowicz, Corporation Sole: Cardinal Mundelein and Chicago Catholicism (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983). Meanwhile, the growth of the BVM order of sisters had outpaced the educational ability of Mount Saint Joseph, the BVM college in Dubuque, Iowa. The successful partnership between Cardinal Mundelein and the order led to a college which would exceed both their aspirations.Harrington and Moylan, ed., Mundelein Voices.
During the first few decades, courses covered both traditional liberal arts and practical life skills, ranging from Latin, philosophy, literature, physics, and chemistry to home economics and secretarial skills. In the 1940s the Mundelein College Skyscraper boasted one of the country's highest observatories containing a telescope and the longest Foucault pendulum in existence at the time.Women and Leadership Archives (WLA). Mundelein College Record Collection. F.5..23e. Foucault Pendulum Clubs were a major part of student life at Mundelein. In the first decade, twenty-two clubs were created, ranging from the Stylus (writing) Club and basketball team to the Chemistry Club and International Relations. The Verse Speaking Choir worked under contract with NBC Radio and its participants included Mercedes McCambridge (1937), Academy Award and Golden Globe winner.Women and Leadership Archives (WLA). Mundelein College Record Collection. N.4..1 Skyscraper Vol. 12-16, 1941–1946
Upon the United States entry into World War II the Mundelein College student body participated in a variety of war effort activities. In addition to planting a victory garden near the library, Mundelein students held a jeep drive which raised funds equivalent to the cost of two United States Army Jeeps, held several blood drives, and purchased a war bond with the proceeds from their annual benefit. Mundelein College students also started the first Midwest college unit of the American Red Cross.Women and Leadership Archives (WLA). Mundelein College Record Collection. N.4..1 Skyscraper Vol. 12-16, 1941-1946, and Women and Leadership Archives (WLA). Mundelein College Record Collection. B.1..3g. 2006 Chicago Landmark Application.
In 1957 Mary Ann Ida Gannon became Mundelein College's sixth president and Mundelein College began a new phase of development. That year 48 young sisters began their education side by side with Mundelein College's lay student population as part of the scholasticate program. Also that year, Mary Ann Ida Gannon asked Mary Carol Frances Jegen to establish Mundelein College's first theology department.Prudence Moylan, "A Catholic Women's College Absorbed by a University: The Case of Mundelein College", in Challenged by Coeducation: Women's Colleges Since the 1960s (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2006).
Mary Ann Ida Gannon initiated a college wide self-study in 1962 to determine Mundelein College's continued relevance as an institution of higher academic education. The results of the self-study became the driving force for several experimental programs. Mundelein College updated its mission statement, redesigned its term system and core curriculum. In 1965, the college implemented a Degree Completion Program for women who had dropped out of college before receiving their degrees. Beginning with the academic year 1970–71, the college offered students a self-directed course of study, within a group known as "Mandala." By 1974, the Weekend College in Residence program expanded upon the idea of the Degree Completion Program by offering working women the opportunity to achieve a degree while attending college only on the weekends.
Although Mundelein College had amended their articles of incorporation in 1968 to admit men, the education and cultivation of women remained its primary focus. Mundelein College was not immune to the forces of feminism and in 1977 the seeds of an interdisciplinary women's studies program began to germinate. Over the next two years, Mundelein College held yearly conferences on women. However, it wasn't until 1983 that a Women's Studies minor was finally accepted by the college Curriculum Committee. The Peace Studies minor, inaugurated in 1989, also integrated feminist perspectives.
The decades between 1960 and 1990 also saw an increase of minority outreach at Mundelein College. In 1966, the college launched Upward Bound, a federally funded summer program to help minority high school students succeed to college. Responding to the death of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, black students at Mundelein College formed MuCUBA (Mundelein College United Black Association) to address the racial barriers which existed within the walls of the college. In 1982 Hispanic students created their own organization, Hispanics for the Advancement of Our Culture and Education (later reorganized into Latins United for Our Cultural Heritage).
Many Mundelein students embraced the spirit of activism in the 1960s and 1970s. Seven BVM sisters and "a busload" of students traveled to Alabama to participate in the Selma March for Civil Rights.Women and Leadership Archives. Mundelein College Record Collection. M.4..2. Selma March, 1965. Mundelein College's student body participated in the national wide strike protesting the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia and the student deaths at Kent State University. Students and faculty marched from the Learning Resource Center to the Skyscraper in solidarity against the war.Women and Leadership Archives (WLA). Mundelein College Record Collection. M.4..3c. College "Strike", May 1970. In November 1979, César Chávez spoke at Mundelein College during his tour around the country promoting a lettuce workers strike.
The opening of the 1980s saw Mundelein College celebrating its 50th anniversary with great fanfare. Among the dignitaries at the Golden Jubilee Dinner was Mayor Jane Byrne and highlighting the event was the appearance of Mother Teresa, recipient of the 1980 Magnificat Medal.Women and Leadership Archives (WLA). Mundelein College Record Collection. O.2..3e.2 Mother Teresa files. New programs continued to enhance Mundelein's academic offerings, including courses in food management, interior architecture and design, communications, computer science, and peace studies.
Presidents
President (all BVM sisters but for Richert) Term Mary Justitia Coffey 1930–1936 Mary Consuela 1936–1939 Mary Justitia Coffey 1939–1945 Mary Josephine Malone 1945–1951 Mary John Michael Dee 1951–1957 Mary Ann Ida Gannon 1957–1975 Susan Rink 1975–1983 John Richert 1983–1985 Mary Brenan Breslin 1985–1991 Carolyn Farrell 1991-Affiliation
Campus
The Skyscraper
When new, the fourteen-story Art Deco building dominated the skyline of Chicago's far north side as building construction stalled during the Great Depression. The Skyscraper had few equals in size and style outside of Downtown Chicago (similarly designed buildings include the Palmolive Building, the Chicago Board of Trade Building, and the West Town Bank Building). Vertical lines of Indiana limestone created a visual illusion making the college appear to soar higher than its actual .Women and Leadership Archives (WLA). Mundelein College Record Collection. B.1..3g. 2006 Chicago Landmark Application.
Although the Skyscraper features abstracted foliate, sunbursts, and other geometric designs around its doors and windows, the most striking feature of the building's exterior is its guardian angels. The two towering statues at the entrance represent the angels Uriel ("Light of God") and Jophiel ("Beauty of God"). Uriel holds the book of wisdom and points to a cross in Bas-relief on the fourteenth floor. Jophiel holds the planet Earth and lifts the torch of knowledge.Women and Leadership Archives (WLA). Mundelein College Record Collection. A4..1b. Angels. A photo of the sculptures is included in the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS), of the Renwick Gallery of American Art."Uriel and Jopiel, (sculpture)", Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery, Record ID siris_ari_302575
Although Chicago architect Joseph W. McCarthy is listed as the supervising architect, the building was designed by Nairne W. Fisher, from St. Cloud Minnesota. McCarthy had been Cardinal Mundelein's choice. However, after Mother Isabella Kane dismissed McCarthy's Gothic Revival design, she turned to Fisher with whom she had worked before. Not only was Fisher's design more modern, it was less expensive than McCarthy's.
Fisher studied drafting at a Minneapolis technical school, served in a U.S. Army Intelligence unit which produced maps during World War I, studied briefly at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, worked as a draftsman at lumberyards in Minnesota and South Dakota, and registered as a Minnesota architect in 1922. The designer of the "Moderne" (later known as Art Deco) Mundelein College building never graduated from college.Nairne W. Fisher, "My Life, 1899 to 1972 (written May 1972).
Originally intended to be a self-contained educational facility, the interior contained classrooms, laboratories, art and music studios, a library, an auditorium, a chapel, a cafeteria, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, reception areas and meeting rooms, and seven floors of living quarters for the BVM staff. Beginning in 1934 with the two houses east of the Skyscraper, Mundelein College began expanding.Women and Leadership Archives (WLA). Mundelein College Record Collection. B4..1 History/Scotty's Story. By 1991, in addition to the original skyscraper, Mundelein College owned a dormitory (Coffey Hall), the white marble mansion (Piper Hall), the Learning Resource Center (now the Sullivan Center), the Yellow House (also known as the President's House), and a residence for the BVMs (Wright Hall).
The Mundelein College Skyscraper was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.Women and Leadership Archives (WLA). Mundelein College Record Collection. B.1..3a. Letter of Approval, April 1980.
In December 2007 the City of Chicago designated the building as an official Chicago Landmark.City of Chicago, Chicago Landmarks, Mundelein College Skyscraper, retrieved 5/14/2023.