Happy St. Patrick’s from the epicenter of the 1844 riots. Where the local Nativists faced off with and burned down the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Olde Kensington.poulin t1_jcm37l1 wrote
Reply to comment by Hollow_Rant in Happy St. Patrick’s from the epicenter of the 1844 riots. Where the local Nativists faced off with and burned down the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Olde Kensington. by ActionShackamaxon
I can’t find any direct evidence to support this, but the original St. Augustine’s Church and St. Augustine Academy (the predecessor to Villanova University) both burned down in the May ‘44 riots. The Augustinians had already purchased land in Radnor with the intent to build a school there in 1841, so that was already in the works. But I believe the Augustinians would have continued to focus their education mission in the city (with the Radnor school being more of an afterthought) but for the riots. And what we now know as Villanova would have been an urban college located in Old City.
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