Athenaeum of Ohio

After the school's founding in 1829, on October 2, 1851 a new seminary building was dedicated by Archbishop John Baptist Purcell in Price Hill, Cincinnati and the seminary was renamed Mount St. Mary's of the West to avoid confusion with The Athenaeum, which had become St. Xavier College in 1840. The new name was selected in honor of Mount St. Mary’s of the East in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where Archbishop Purcell had been rector. In 1879, the seminary closed for eight years due to financial difficulty. When it reopened, the Archbishop decided to create a separate preparatory school, St. Gregory’s Seminary, which was opened in Mount Washington in 1890.