Site of Ursuline Convent and Academy

Seven nuns of the Ursuline order from New Orleans arrived in Galveston on January 19, 1847, sent at the request of Bishop Jean Marie Odin. By February 1847 the nuns established a convent and academy in the two-story former home of Judge James W. Love. The school opened with 25 students. Later some pupils boarded at the school. A hurricane struck Galveston in 1853, followed by a yellow fever epidemic. The nuns opened the academy to orphaned children.

The frame structure was destroyed by fire in 1854, and the nuns obtained funding by subscription to build a brick structure in 1855. That facility also became a place of refuge after several outbreaks of yellow fever. During the Civil War, the nuns nursed soldiers from both sides of the conflict there.

A new Ursuline Academy was designed by noted Galveston architect Nicholas J. Clayton in the 1890s. The massive Gothic structure provided shelter during many storms until 1961, when hurricane Carla damaged the school beyond repair. In 1964 a new Ursuline Academy was dedicated; It later became a junior high school campus. The old Ursuline Convent was razed in 1974.