The Ups and Downs of Life

Let us now consider the elevator. The elevator at Fifth Street was off limits to the students unless they had a medical need. While that’s the rule here on Hilton Dr. today, it’s a bit easier, to say the least, for students to “bend the rule” since today’s “lift” does not necessitate a call/operate key as the Fifth St. one did. By the way, the old building didn’t get an elevator until the late 1940s. One of the installers asked what was done with the old elevator. We didn’t have one was the reply. Amazement! “You had to climb five floors?” Affirmative. This really applied only to the Sisters, some of whom slept in one of the two large but separate rooms on the roof. Yes, on the roof. Yes, separate. There was a walkway (referred to as “the bridge”) between them. Actually, you can see the walkway on the photo—it’s between the two skylights. One room was a dormitory and had about nine beds. The other was used for storage but visited regularly. Was the dorm cold in winter? Was the walk to the storage room a chilling experience? Does water freeze at 32 degrees F.? The Sherpas of Nepal had nothing on these Sisters.
 

The History of Houses

How many changes have you made in your house and/or yard since you’ve been living at your current address?  Certainly you haven’t occupied that piece of property for over 100 years, but maybe your family has.  Our NDA family has occupied two houses in the past 107 years: one on 5th St. in Covington for 57 years and the one on Hilton Dr. for 50.  If the changes in the 5th Street building alone were recorded here, you would be reading for quite a while. 
A few changes that come to mind could revolve around the transfer of Sisters’ quarters in 1927 to 1601 Dixie Highway, their new provincial center.  Before this time the school building was as much a convent as it was a school.  The move therefore freed a number of rooms for school use.  The 5th Street facility was still the home of a grade school, a high school and a commercial school with the “Music House” providing space for music lessons.  That building was purchased in 1922 for an infirmary for the Sisters as well as for music lessons (thus the “Music House”).  Since it was so close to the school building a bridge was built between the two buildings.  This bridge was later torn down (1931) to allow for more classroom space. 
These movings-about were many and with no elevator yet as can be read in the next blog spot!  The Music House became home also to the Art Department after 1948 when Sr. M. Reina, helped by her sister Mill, moved the department from the third floor of the main building.  The Fine Arts were always capital at Notre Dame Academy and now had their own building separate from the rest of the school but always a vital part of it.

The Panda Brief

 In the fall of 1975 the school community was looking for a mascot for their teams and for general spirit.  Sr. M. Virginia Ann, principal, called for a contest.  One sophomore, Bev Rosing, went all out in her search for a suitable candidate.  When she looked at all her stuffed animals on her bed she ended up writing an entry with the name of each animal.  Among them was her panda and when she wrote the name she underlined the last three letters—nda.  History was in the making at that moment.  A few days later in the hall Bev was congratulated by one of the Sisters, but she didn’t know if that meant her suggestion had been accepted.  When the student body was assembled for the announcement, she was pretty sure her “panda” entry was going to win and her hunch was correct.  The whole NDA community was enthusiastic from the start with this clever choice.

30 years passed and many things changed.  When the bookstore gave way to a sports-wear shop, the two women who operated it, Cathy Stevens and her helper Mary Jo Wickelhaus, thought a new name was called for.  Several possible names surfaced between them, so they put them to the students to choose.  The students’ choice is now part of Panda History—Bambootique.  How  appropriate!

The Trees of Our Lives

-->

Pictured here is one of the recent additions to the Hilton Dr. campus. It’s a tree nursery.  

Strange? Not at all.  With bad winter weather and various tree-killing bugs in the last several years, the total campus (Heights and NDA) has lost nearly 50 trees.  The sign on the enclosure makes the joint effort clear.  Several people from both communities are engaged in the endeavor as well as a number of outsiders interested in reforestation.  This fall may see more transplanting of young trees, but these babies won’t be in the running.  They will need a few more years in the nursery before “going to school” or convent.

Here’s what Mr. Joseph Gray of NDA faculty has to say in the Panda Press Newsletter:

“We are developing a long-range plan to reforest the Heights and Notre Dame Academy properties and to develop an educational program to create an “arboretum” styled somewhat after the arboretum in Boone County on Camp Ernst road.”

This is part of the pursuit of quality in the environment that is inherent in SND and NDA heritage.  Our physical environment determines so much in our lives and demands our attention and respect.   That’s all it takes to be valued by us here at 1699 Hilton Dr. 

Fifty Years and Holding

Well, our big day, October 29^th, came and went into our 50+ year history last week.  It was quite a program celebrating 50 Years on Hilton Drive, not long, but full of nostalgia on the part of graduates attending and interest on the part of all attending including students. The general feeling of contentment and cheer was palpable.  The service consisted of greetings from our president Sr. M. Lynette Shelton, and principal Dr. Laura Koehl, and a brief prayer of thanksgiving and request for continued blessings from two student representatives.  Graduates were invited to tell of their coming to Hilton Drive on that fateful day of October 29^th, 1963.  Several grads responded and the students listened with wrapped attention.  This, one got the impression, was part of the students’ in-tuneness with the significance of the event.  We have tried to instill in them a sense of the school’s history and what that means to them—educational roots, sense of pride in their someday alma mater, and a feeling of belonging to this place and these people.  One of the last pieces of the day’s assembly was the invitation to the faculty and staff alums to stand together and sing the school song which we gladly and proudly did—about 15 of us.   One more milestone in what we hope will be a long history with all that it will mean to us and to future generations of young women.  As we say at our athletic events, “Go, Pandas!”

   AMDG AMDG AMDG AMDG AMDG AMDG AMDG

                                                                                      Remember?                                                             

In the top photo above, the person on the right is Dr. Laura Koehl, our first lay principal.  The fifth person from the left in the black suit is Sr. M. Lynette Shelton, our president.  Of course you don't need to be introduced to the attire in the bottom picture unless you are a fairly new comer to our fair school's history.

Did You Help? Help Blogger!

Well, we’re at it again, but this time we’d like to hear from you.  If you attended NDA between the years 1962 to 1965, stir the memory and let us in on it.  Blogger would like to share your recollections of the last days on Fifth Street, the move to Hilton Drive, and what those first days and months were like.  Keep your memories down to about 200 words (yes, you could probably go on and on) and email them to giblind@ndapandas.org with the heading “Memories”.

To get you started, here are a few from Sr. Mary Bernadette (now Lea) whose recollections are from the other side of the experience. 

When the Sisters were planning what they needed and wanted in the new school, they visited a number of schools to get ideas.  In one they saw a floor vacuum system and it went on the need list.  Remember the floor vac?  If you cleaned erasers you probably do.

Very little rain fell all summer the first year here, but when it came it did so with a vengeance.  Water rushed down the west-side basement door (below the steps leading to the auditorium—remember?), carrying straw which clogged the drain outside the door so that the water broke the glass in the door and flooded the basement.  The maintenance men had to raise the pianos in the choral room and practice rooms while the Sisters and others swept water out of the art department.

Speaking of art department, the windows were installed upside-down so that they couldn’t be locked, while lights fell in the kitchen.  Hmm.

Sister told of much more, but this may give your memory a good jogging.  Do let’s hear from you!

Here are a few photos from the summer of 1963.

 

Dream Reality, No Finality (Ever)

50 years ago?  Too young to remember?  Well, these photos may help fill in the gaps created by the accounts you may have heard.  First, the extent of the ’63 construction is best shown from above.  Notice the absence of a gym and a theater with its parking lot, as well as a soccer field, ball field, and tennis courts.  All these things were hardly at the dream stage as yet (unless you’re talking about the dreams of Sr. Mary Agnetis).

The second photo, a side-long view of the back of the building, shows garages at the east end.  Replacing them eventually will be the windows of the advancement office that won’t appear until the summer of 2007.  This photo was taken not long after the construction of the building when the Art Dept. porch did not have its metal awning yet (below the kitchen windows).

The third photo gives you a glimpse of what the folks across the express way saw from their back yard in that momentous year as well as for several years thereafter until renovation fever and fervor hit.

Ah, yes.  The Hilton Drive queen has aged some, but has taken on many adornments that have kept her modish and a leader in her class.  May she ever be so.