A brief history of Loretto Heights College
Loretto Heights was founded in 1864 when Father J.P. Machebeuf was sent to Colorado as a missionary. He was accompanied by three Sisters of Loretto from the Loretto Motherhouse in Kentucky. Upon their arrival in Colorado, they lived in a two-story, framed house at what is now 15th and California streets. This building would become St. Mary’s Academy of the Loretto Order, a boarding school for young girls in the Denver area. The school continued to grow while the Sisters of Loretto gained high esteem and attracted many students. As the number of pupils increased, the sisters expanded, continuing their mission of education and tradition.
In March 1888, Mother Pancratia Bonfils (a cousin to the prominent Bonfils family), superior of the academy and alumna of St. Mary’s Academy, sought to start a new academy, far from the expanding “downtown” Denver area. Mother Pancratia and the other sisters chose a hilltop site approximately seven miles southwest of Denver with a stunning panoramic view, which they called “Loretto Heights.” From this view, the sisters could see the Platte River to the east where miners had left their mark, and Fort Logan to the southwest.
Soon after, architect Frank Edbrooke was contracted to design the main academic building, and construction began in 1890. By 1891, the sisters and pupils were moving into the new building. When World War I erupted, the sisters turned Loretto Heights Academy into a military training ground and held a National Service School. By 1926, Loretto Heights had gained its college accreditation.
The Great Depression and World War II could not shake the deeply-rooted Loretto Heights College. Loretto Heights College contributed to the war effort and in 1945 created joint collegiate nursing programs to meet the growing desire amongst women for economic independence in the postwar era. In the face of the social changes and events happening around them (new technology, the women’s movement for equality, the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War), tradition and morals at Loretto Heights remained consistent, while it simultaneously worked to cope and adapt to societal changes. Loretto Heights College was the first school in the area to establish a Women’s Studies Research Center. In 1971, it pioneered the University Without Walls program with 12 other colleges across the nation – a program designed to help adult learners earn bachelor’s degrees, with flexible schedules, skills learned through life experience counting as credit hours towards a degree, and more practical courses.
Although the sisters lived a relatively austere life on the plains, they sought out some of Denver’s best architects to design the buildings on the campus. Frank Edbrooke designed the original 1890 Administration Building and the attached 1911 Chapel. In 1928, the sisters commissioned Harry Edbrooke to design the first free-standing dormitory, naming it Pancratia Hall after the founding mother.
As the campus grew, new dorms were added, and in 1960 Denver architect John K. Monroe designed the Machenbeuf Building, which was used as the student union and cafeteria. In 1963, the campus added a dedicated library and theater.
In 1988, Loretto Heights shut its doors, but three of its degree programs live on at Regis University in north Denver. In Loretto’s place, a new institution emerged: Teikyo Loretto Heights University, which catered to international students looking to complete a degree program or learn English in an immersive environment.
The Loretto Heights campus has since been developed and Pancratia Hall converted into affordable housing units. In 2022, 62 nuns who were buried in the cemetery at Loretto were exhumed and moved to Mount Olivet Cemetery in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. There are discussions underway to convert May Bonfils Stanton Center of Performing Arts into Denver’s newest concert hall.