Alumni Center History

The Alumni Center was built in 1905 as the College of St. Thomas’ infirmary, which provided full hospital service to students who needed it. A 1930s-era photo of the building can be seen above in the page header. Joseph Connors’ history of St. Thomas, titled “Journey Toward Fulfillment” (1986), notes:

“The new Infirmary, in addition to offices and a dispensary, had five rooms and eight six-bed wards for patients. This building, completed in 1905, is today the sole survivor of St. Thomas’ earlier red-brick buildings. In addition to its service to the ill and the maimed, it eventually provided rooms for bachelor faculty members and was for a time a residence for the Sisters of St. Joseph who handled infirmary and housekeeping duties.”

The building housed the infirmary for more than 60 years. The infirmary moved into the newly constructed Brady Hall in 1967, and the Catholic Digest magazine staff moved into the building soon thereafter. St. Thomas sold the Catholic Digest in 2001, but the building continued to be known as “the Catholic Digest building” until the Alumni and Constituent Relations department relocated into it in 2005, and it was renamed the Alumni Center.

Alumni young and old are welcome to stop in for a visit with staff and to see how well a well-built building can hold up after a century of use!