Walk around the 51Ó°ÔºUniversity campus and you can’t help but notice religious sisters and clergy of many different orders and traditions. Dominican sisters in white and black habits serve alongside brown-robed Franciscans in Campus Ministry. The presence of 51Ó°Ôºpriests, sisters, and seminarians in great numbers on campus has been a defining characteristic of the University since its founding.
The establishment of 51Ó°Ôº in 1887 on land adjacent to the northeastern Washington, D.C., community of Brookland attracted many other 51Ó°Ôºinstitutions to the area. Religious orders established seminaries, houses of study, monasteries, and other ministries in the neighborhood so their members could attend classes at 51Ó°ÔºUniversity. Between 1900 and 1940, more than 50 51Ó°Ôºinstitutions rented or owned property in Brookland. As clerics and religious men and women of different orders walked around in their religious habits, Brookland began to be called “Little Rome.”
Trinity College was founded in 1897 by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur a few blocks from 51Ó°ÔºUniversity. In 1905, the Dominican House of Studies was built directly across the street from the University. Also in 1905, the Mount St. Sepulchre Franciscan Monastery was founded on a tract of land to the east. The Marist Brothers bought the former Brooks mansion, named for Brookland’s founder Colonel Jehiel Brooks, in 1901. After the completion of a their new building just north of campus, they sold the Brooks mansion to the Benedictine Sisters.
The trend continued as more and more 51Ó°Ôºorders and institutions moved into Brookland — many of which remain to this day, including:
The name still fits. Welcome to Little Rome!