Dom Benedict Brosnahan on the Manor House road

As part of our series on “The Former Structures,” highlighting some of the buildings and elements of community life no longer visible to us, we take a moment here to highlight some of “the first structures” - the property Leonard Sargent discovered and chose as the site to achieve his monastic vision. In his memoir, “Pictures and Persons,” Leonard Sargent described his arrival at the place that was to become the beginnings of his monastery: “In 1918, visiting Dr. Horatio Storer in Newport, I was advised to look at a property of seventy acres on Narragansett Bay, at Portsmouth, known as Hall Manor. The very day of my visit the transfer of ownership was practically settled and all the belongings of house and out-buildings accompanied the transfer. Father Hugh Pope once asked me, ‘However did you get such a place?’ ‘Dropped a medal of Saint Benedict into a field as we drove in, to be sure.’ ‘The same old superstition!’ he said; ‘but it always succeeds.’” The decision to make this purchase was also affirmed for Sargent by a pledge he had recently received from Bishop Matthew Harkins of Providence, who had been educated by Benedictines of Douay: “Shortly before the Portsmouth property was acquired, I spent twenty-four hours with him and he told me he had been ‘saving up’ for us in our absence from America. His gift, unconditioned by place except that he ‘hoped’ that the place might be in his diocese, meant the ‘saving’ of five thousand dollars. When the property was conveyed to us I went to tell the Bishop the good news: we looked at one another and said, ‘This, surely, is Providence.’” While these narratives, together with some of the images included in this article, have been published in monastic and School publications previously, it is the duty and pleasure of our archives to recollect some of these origins. Indeed, much history is the retelling of the same old stories, and those stories of “pictures and persons” may be told somewhat differently here, or fall on new eyes. But perhaps in this retelling one may again recapture some of the “first structures” of this monastery, those Leonard Sargent discovered in 1918 when planting “the seed” - his St. Benedict medal - for his future abbey.

Matthew Harkins, bishop of Providence

An advertisement for the sale of the property gives an illuminating inventory of the contents of the property: “Mansion house, twenty-two (22) rooms, commands magnificent view of Narragansett Bay; all modern conveniences; furnace; open fireplaces; hardwood floors throughout. Fine grove of native trees and forty years’ growth of several thousand oaks, elms, maple, fir, and spruce. Big barn (thirty head cattle and horses; 100 tons hay capacity); coachman’s house, gardener’s lodge, farm house, dairy house, boat house and other buildings. Clear brook dammed for ice pond – capacity of ice house one hundred and fifty (150) tons.” (Henry W. Cooke Company Estate Agents, R.I. Hospital Trust Building, Providence, R.I.)

As an initial note, “all modern conveniences” apparently did not yet include electricity, as our archives indicate this was not installed until the beginnings of the School in the late mid-1920's. And one detects in some of the early images a kind of overgrowth of trees and other vegetation, and perhaps a certain tiredness to the Manor House itself and its environs. It may not be a surprise that shortly after the untimely death of her husband, Mrs. Hall was anxious to unload the property.
 

Benedict Brosnahan at left, Leonard Sargent third from left, Wilfred Bayne at right (others not identified)

We learn this from Fr. Benedict Brosnahan, in notes from a conversation taken down in 1960 on the occasion of the dedication of our present church. Fr. Brosnahan was one of the early inhabitants of the “first structures,” accompanying Leonard Sargent in forming the first community, though he soon departed for the new foundation of St. Anselm’s in Washington, D.C.

Early chapel in Manor House

Early photographs reveal the community’s first chapel that was located downstairs in the Manor House and served provisionally for liturgical life until the adjacent cottage was renovated. Fr. Brosnahan remarks that, “The Chapel was at the right of the main hall, at the west side of the first floor of the house. The First Mass at Portsmouth, however, was said in the long drawing room to the left of the main hall... The Chapel was arranged by Mr. Anthony, an architect from New York; there were three prie-dieu’s on either side, drawn up in choir arrangement.” Fr. Brosnahan indicates that as Leonard Sargent was occasionally away for some time, including an extended visit to England, he was often the sole member of the nascent community actually in residence. We find several images of him at work on the grounds, on his own or with the farm staff that still cared for the property. The monastery archives indicate two possible dates for the first Mass he mentions, both in November of 1918. Within a few years, the community had produced its first “new structure,” its first monastery, connected to the cottage that had been converted to a chapel that was to serve the community until the Belluschi construction was complete. Additional interior images of the Manor House, though of poor photographic quality, give a sense of a cluttered but comfortable ambience.

Dom Benedict Brosnahan works in garden

The main barn – later razed and entirely reimagined as our present Maguire Arts Building – which housed “artists, students, and animals” (as an old School publication announces) over the years, was still entirely dedicated to animals when Sargent acquired the property. We have images that capture come of these residents, including a horse whose image has the caption: “Junior Wilkes has a record of a mile in 2.10. ‘I was caught not napping but gapping.’ June 1, 1920.” We also have images of a workhorse with a cart, another with the horse towing a cart entirely overflowing with newly harvested hay, and another pulling a plow. In addition to the farm work, Brosnahan mentions that the late Mr. Hall had “fancied fine horses.” Mrs. Hall, he adds, “fancies fine cattle of the Jersey breed.” While the land acquired in 1918 included the associated buildings and property, the Cooke advertisement also mentions “30 head of cattle.” Fr. Brosnahan notes that, “In the Spring of 1919 most of the cattle were auctioned off to get some money.”
 

Gatehouse at main entrance

Fr. Brosnahan retrieving ice from the pond

One other unfortunate loss over the years is a quaint gatehouse, whose only trace is found in an old photographic image. While the entry way to the manor property was marked by the gate whose pillars remain firmly in place to this day, the gatehouse, unfortunately, has been long gone. The land adjacent to that gate would become several decades later the resting place of Leonard Sargent, first of the community to be buried in what was to become the monastic cemetery. We also find a photograph that appears to be the view up the lane from that entry gate, providing us with an image of the Cory’s Lane Sargent would have traveled. In his 1960 conversation, Fr. Brosnahan mentioned that in addition to the Manor House, “other buildings on the property included a garage and a farmer’s cottage; the latter also included space for a billiard room, and some of these buildings were later turned into a chapel and into school buildings.” Some of these “first structures” endured for decades, gradually converted from the uses of a gentleman’s farm to suit the purposes of a monastery and school. And while most are no longer extant or have been greatly modified, they still provided the founding version of the monastery and grounds we presently inhabit.