The History of St. Peter's

St. Peter's (circa 1865), which originally housed the Rosenlund Estate's gardener and his family, was purchased by the Marist Brothers in 1908 and served until 1969 as a residence for the Marist Brothers. It received its name because the brothers who lived there from 1910 until 1936 taught in St. Peter's School in Poughkeepsie. Later it was used to house some of the faculty.

A wooden addition to the front of the building was used as an office for Brother Nilus who was constructing new buildings on the property. Another addition facing Route 9 was built to house the Marist College faculty. The printer, Brother Tarcisius, and the gardeners, Brothers Abelus and Sanctus also lived there.

The print shop, located since 1937 in the basement of St. Peter's, was used to print documents for the Marist Brothers' Province as well as for the college. In 1947 the print shop was relocated to the northwest wing of the new gymnasium. All of the wooden additions to St. Peter's were demolished in 1969 when the faculty moved to Gregory House. At that time the facade of the original building was restored to its former design.

St. Peter's currently houses the staff of the Upward Bound program. Founded in the spring of 1965, Marist College's program is among the longest established in the country. It has helped motivate and academically prepare hundreds of disadvantaged high school students from the Hudson Valley to pursue a college education. Upward Bound is an outstanding example of Marist's longstanding commitment to serve the community beyond the campus.