Honors Capstone
The Mother House
by Rebecca Herrera
In the year 1850, when Joseph Sadoc Alemany was consecrated Bishop of California by Pius IX in Rome, he wanted to leave for Monterey, then capital of California. Bishop Alemany inspired one woman, Mother Mary Goemaere, “a novice of the Holy Cross Convent in Paris,” to go with him. After they arrived, they founded the first Mother House, the Convent of Santa Catalina, which became the first Dominican College of San Rafael, with its European traditions of education. It was soon realized that the school building was not large enough to house its growing success.
Saint Catherine’s Convent, Benicia, 1854 – 1889. Photograph Collection, Dominican University of California Archives, San Rafael, CA.
The Convent of Santa Catalina, 1850 – 1854. Photograph Collection, Dominican University of California Archives, San Rafael, CA.
The Administration Building, Dominican College, San Rafael. Photograph Collection, Dominican University of California Archives, San Rafael, CA.
In 1854, Benicia became the new capital of California. At the same time, the Bishops of Los Angeles, California was divided in half by both the Catholic Church and Monterey. The sisters stayed in Benicia for a couple of years and a St. Catherine’s Academy in honor of St. Catherine of Sienna was built. It was mostly an elementary school and had some secondary school students for both boys and girls. This boarding school was different because it was more of an elementary and a high school. Until the 1950s, St. Catherine’s Academy was standing until it was sold, and currently, it was where the Safeway supermarket now stands in Benicia.
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After, 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. The ceilings were twelve-foot-high, with a red colored roof. In 1889, Mother Louis O’Donnell, moved the Mother House and novitiate to San Rafael and opened a school. From the start, the sisters ran an all-girls’ school at the convent house, which later became San Domenico School in Sleepy Hollow. In 1889 of August, the school was built there, and therefore, the Mother House was planned as a building that held everything. In San Rafael, the Mother House was much bigger compared to the other Mother Houses and it felt more permanent.
On July 12, 1990, a devastating fire quickly spread leaving the top two floors badly burned and the bottom two floors significantly water damaged. At the time, all the sisters came together for many meetings to decide what should they do. In their discussions, they decided that they loved the Mother House. Sister Carla states, “We shifted from being a San Rafael Dominican and we have a Mother House, so I’m a San Rafael Dominican and we’re a group of religious women who are bringing the gospel in many different places.” This was a significant shift for the sisters because none of them felt that in the beginning, since they grieved the loss of their home.
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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 archives, offices and a big gathering space where they have funeral services, are all located in the Administration Building. Then they have a large convent that rooms twenty people, and two smaller convents that room eight people. Both Sister Patricia and Sister Carla live in the smaller convents. Further on, they have another convent, which is for sisters in full care, meaning that it is for the sisters that need more help.
The Dominican Convent of San Rafael, The Mother House, 1889. Photograph Collection, Dominican University of California Archives, San Rafael, CA.
Dominican Sisters Center, Convent and Administration, 2019. Personal Collection, Dominican University of CA, San Rafael. CA.