History

The Start in 1871...

Rooted in Mercy

C atherine McAuley, the foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, had a special love for the virtue of mercy. In her words, Mercy is more than charity for it not only gives benefits, but it receives and pardons again and again - even the ungrateful. When she inherited a large fortune in 1824, she used it to build a large house in Dublin, Ireland, where she and several other women provided educational, religious and social services for women and children who were poor, homeless, and in need. This building, called the House of Mercy, became the first Mercy convent when the community was founded in 1831.

Situated at the corner of Orange and Columbus streets, on one of Macon’s highest hills, Mount de Sales commands a widespread view of the beautiful country around.”

Sister M. A. McKervey, 1923

Beacon of Education

In 1871 five Sisters of Mercy arrived in Macon from Columbus and opened a small school called the Academy of the Sacred Heart Jesus on the corner of Walnut and Fourth. They taught Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish children while also operating a free school to serve the poor in the basement of the old Saint Joseph Church. Catholic education in Macon under the direction of the Sisters of Mercy preceded the Bibb County public school system which was started in 1872. The free school operated by the Sisters was incorporated as a public school. Two of the Sisters were the first teachers in the Macon public schools and taught in the public school for thirty years. In 1876 the mother house of the Sisters was moved from Columbus to Macon. To accommodate all the Sisters, novices, and boarding students, the former home of Governor Towns, on Beall’s Hill at the corner of Orange and Columbus was purchased by the united efforts of the Sisters, Catholics in the city, and other friends. The school’s name was changed to Mount de Sales Academy in honor of Saint Francis de Sales. The history of Mount de Sales thus begins in1876 when the school was moved and chartered as a Junior College for women, a boarding school, with the right to confer degrees under the laws of the state of Georgia. When the first graduation exercises took place in 1882, the school had three divisions: primary, preparatory, and senior.

Expansion and Changing Faces

To accommodate the growing number of students, additions were made to the original building several times before the entire structure, with the exception of one wing, was demolished and replaced by a new structure in 1910. The Mount de Sales boarding school for girls in grades one through twelve existed from 1882 until 1936 when the grade school was discontinued. The school continued as a secondary school for day students and boarding students who came from Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and Cuba.

Front entrance of the original highschool

During the 1950s, several decades of dramatic growth began and the campus and its buildings were expanded to include Mercy Hall, St. Joseph Hall, McAuley Hall, Cavalier Hall and Burke Hall. Mid-century needs provoked not only expansion but change. At the request of the Bishop of Savannah, Mount de Sales became a coeducational institution in 1959 when the first boys entered as freshmen. In May of 1963, for the first time in the history of Mount de Sales, boys, sixteen in number, were among the forty-two graduates. This date also marked the closing of the boarding school with the exception of four girls of the class of ’64. In the fall of 1963, Mount de Sales became the first integrated school in Middle Georgia. The sisters moved to a new residence on College Avenue in 1970 at which time the convent/boarding school building was razed. The old convent laundry building on Columbus Street was renovated for use as the football team’s storage/locker/shower facility.

The Middle School was reopened when grade eight was reinstated in 1975 and grade seven returned to Mount de Sales in 1988. August of 1990 marked the dedication of Sheridan Hall housing classrooms, a chapel, science and computer labs, and administrative offices. In January of 1996, seventy acres of land was acquired on which the Academy’s first athletic complex was completed. Cavalier Fields, the school’s Dream of Fields, opened with a football stadium and practice field, soccer field and practice field, baseball field, softball field, a state of the art rubberized track, tennis courts, concession house and patio. The Academy was named a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence in 1991, the first, and only private high school in Middle Georgia to receive this designation.

Meeting the 21st Century

In May of 2002, through the generous support of friends and families, the Academy officially completed construction of the field house with weightlifting and conditioning room, fully equipped athletic training facility, multiple locker rooms, conference room, and coaches’ office. The David J. Zuver Performing Arts Center, a complex where students’ intellectual, physical, and spiritual development is realized, was opened in 2004. This multi–purpose facility includes a 650 seat theater, practice rooms for chorus, band, and music, two art rooms, a dark room, and five classrooms. Once again, Mount de Sales welcomed back younger students and reopened the sixth grade in 2004.

In 2005 Mount de Sales became one of a select group of schools holding dual accreditation from both the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Southern Association of Independent Schools.

Mount de Sales continues to create an environment which encourages all students to explore opportunities designed to help develop their fullest potential. Above all, Mount de Sales challenges its faculty, staff, and students to act with integrity and to work for justice.