Early history

In 1871 during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, a group of five Sisters of Mercy from Columbus, Georgia, began a small school known as the Academy of the Sacred Heart Jesus on the corner of 4th and Walnut streets in Macon.^[1] In 1876, the mother house of the Sisters relocated from Columbus to Macon. With help from others, the Sisters purchased the former home of Georgia Governor George W. Town for use at the corner of Orange and Columbus streets on Beall's Hill in downtown Macon. On February 28, 1876, the new school was chartered under the name of Mount de Sales in honor of Saint Francis de Sales. When the first graduation exercises were held in 1882, it had expanded to comprise three divisions: primary, preparatory and senior. It educated mostly girls in grades 1-12, housing boarding students from around the southeastern United States and Latin America.^[4]

Modernization and expansion

In 1936, Mount de Sales discontinued its primary school. But it continued as a girl's secondary school for boarding and day students until 1959, when the first boys were admitted as day students.^[1] The girl's boarding school closed in 1963 and the school continued as a coeducation day school. The first coeducational graduating class included 16 boys among 46 total graduates in 1963. The fall of 1963 marked the racial integration of Mount de Sales as a result of a diocesan edict, making it the first school in Middle Georgia to desegregate. A year later, it graduated its first two black students: Eileen Williams and Cheryl Odom.^[1]

In 1975, the middle school returned with the re-addition of an eighth grade. A seventh grade was reinstalled in 1988, followed by a sixth grade in 2004.^[1] The Sisters of Mercy served in an administrative capacity until 2002, when the first lay head of school was appointed by the Board of Trustees, the school's governing body. Mount de Sales continues to be sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy.

The original convent and boarding school building was demolished in the early 1970s and replaced with Sheridan Hall in 1990.^[2] New buildings were constructed over the following decades. Cavalier Fields, a 77 acres (31 ha) athletic complex, opened in 1998 approximately 7 miles (11 km) west of the downtown campus. In 2015, the school underwent $1 million of enhancements to align with redevelopment changes in Macon's College Hill Corridor, a two-square mile area between Mercer University and the downtown business district.