a little history

Running for the Boarders

Sister, Classmates Stage Not-So-Great Escape

Sister Georgette Dublino and her older sister, Donna, were “baby boarders” at Mount Assisi Academy in 1940s. In addition high school students, the academy also hosted grade school girls enrolled in first through eighth grades, many of whom lived onsite. Here, Sister recalls the day that she and her young classmates got a good scare.

This story happened around 1946 when I was in the sixth grade as a boarder at Mount Assisi Grade School (in Pittsburgh). There were four of us who decided, one day, to run away because we were tired of boarder life. Off we went, wondering as we took off, “Where will we go?” We pondered for a moment before spying the old house on the property.

Now known as Little Flower House, the large frame house was empty and no one lived there at the time. We were happy to find that the back entry to the basement was unlocked. Confident that we’d found a good place to hide and that no one would find us, we slipped inside. None of us had ever been inside the house, so we had fun going from one room to another, laughing and running around. We made ourselves at home and hadn’t given a thought to going upstairs.

Suddenly, a clothes hanger came tumbling down the steps. We were stunned. Where did that come from? We became very afraid, fearing that someone else was in the house. We mustered our courage and, one behind the other, the four of us crept up the steps to see who was there.

Up we went slowly, moving from room to room, checking the contents and opening every closet. There was no one on the second floor, so we continued up to the next floor. Finally, there was just one more closet left to check. As we tried to open it, it seemed someone was holding it closed from the inside!

We all pulled on the door and out came Sister Pauline Bolecek with a shout! Needless to say, all four of us screamed and had a good laugh! The convent laundress at the time, Sister was there making new pillows when she heard us creeping around.

After that incident, we decided to give up our ideas of running away and, instead, returned to school. Sister Felicitas Konecny was our prefect. When we told her what we had done, we had to do dishes for a week!

Little Flower House was already there when our congregation purchased the property in 1920 to build a motherhouse and girls academy, which opened in 1928. Over the years, the house has been used as a convent and formation house. Several members of the School Sisters of St. Francis still live there today.