Near the entrance at Mount de Sales Academy, the main hallway is lined with photos of the school’s graduating classes dating back more than a century.
In more recent years, the photos have been wide shots, with classes closer to 100 students. That wasn’t always the case for the Catholic girl’s school.
In early 20th century, when it was a boarding school, it only graduated a dozen or so. There are even a few years in the World War I era when fewer than five students graduated.
But through all the years — through the Civil War, in which girls were not allowed to speak about the war because they came from both North and South, through the Great Depression, when the school was hurt badly and boarding ceased, and through the departure of the founding Visitation Sisters order — it has maintained its mission.
Watch the video above to see the documentary, A Mission Sustained: A historical documentary of Mount de Sales Academy.