This postcard was mailed Aug. 4, 1948.

The College of St. Scholastica began as a high school called Sacred Heart Institute in 1892. In 1909, the Benedictine Sisters opened a day and boarding school called Villa Sancta Scholastica Academy at the present-day site of the college.

The school’s stately main building, Tower Hall, was designed by Twin Cities architect Thomas Ellerbe in the English Tudor style, with massive Gothic square towers and protruding wings with octagonal battlement towers on each end.

In 1912 the school became St. Scholastica Junior College and in 1924 expanded to became a four-year college.

A major building program began in 1936 that included construction of the chapel, library, Rockhurst Auditorium and Stanbrook Hall High School, a Catholic school for girls.

In 1962, the college began operating as an independent, private institution, specializing in liberal arts and sciences and professional career fields. St. Scholastica went co-educational in 1968. There were 485 students.

Today the College of St. Scholastica enrolls more than 4,000 students and offers more than 40 undergraduate majors and pre-professional programs, 12 master’s programs and two doctoral programs. The college also has campuses in Brainerd, Rochester, St. Cloud and St. Paul.