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A Chronological Glimpse
The Ursulines
The Growth of Glengarda
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Photo Album 1919-1997
Border City Star
November 8, 1919
The half-tone illustration shown above was reproduced from a photo taken by Evan Rogers of the magnificent Tracy McGregor home on the river from above Ford City, purchased by Mrs. Josephine Gaukler of Grosse Point for $125,000.00 and presented as a gift to her daughter, Reverend Mother Clare, superior general of the Ursuline religious. The fine estate comprises, in addition to the handsome modern mansion erected by Tracy W. McGregor, 70 acres of land extending from the channel bank back to the Tecumseh road and, also livestock and farming implements. Seven acres of the property have been given over to landscape gardening and presents such a wealth of floral, shrub and tree beauty. The estate is to be known henceforth as "Glengarda Ursuline Academy of Our Lady of Prompt Succor". The home of St. Angela, who founded the Ursuline religious, borders on the picturesque, mountainous and as soon as possible will be adorned with a group buildings.
November 8, 1919
Estate Is Purchased As New Academy For Ursuline Religious
Tracy McGregor home on riverfront, valued at $125,000, presented by Mrs. Josephine Gaukler, Grosse PointeThe well-known Tracy McGregor home on the riverfront, a mile above Ford City, has just been purchased by Mrs. Josephine Gaukler, of Grosse Pointe, for $125,000 and presented as a gift to her daughter, Reverend Mother Clare, superior general of the Ursuline religious. The fine estate comprises, in addition to a handsome modern mansion, 70 acres of land extending from the channel bank back to the Tecumseh Road, also livestock and farming implements.
Seven acres of the property have been given over to landscape gardening and present such a wealth of floral, shrub, and tree beauty that words may barely express it. From the coming of the crocuses, tulips, and magnolias in the early spring, a succession of bloom follows each other in riotous splendor through the season. And a walk about the magnificent grounds these early fall days, when autumn is penciling the sumac in flaming scarlet; the elms, oaks, and maples, in browns, golds, russets, and orange; and sending the rich crimson blushes to the cheeks of the clustering haws; affords a sight glorious enough to madden an artist and recalls what Ruskin had to say about the "sacredness and nobleness of color."
Beautiful Environment
The massed trees make up a forest of rare loveliness, where nearly every indigenous specie may be seen, either grown on the place, or transplanted from a distance. Blue pines are there as well as a whole colony of different branches of the pine family. There are long-nailed hawthorns, and lofty, unbending Lombardy poplars, so grouped, that one knows they were set out by a nature lover and a landscape genius, who also had care of our little feathered friends, as seen by the snug bird houses, built in the cosiest and shadiest hollows of the fruit trees' boughs. Up and down, wherever the eye rests in its roaming, is a vista of undulating stretches of lawn, not unlike waves suddenly changed into grass, while surprising views of the varying charms of the place are revealed at every angle.A well-trimmed barberry hedge, along its four hundred feet of frontage, enhances the garden and insures privacy, and a driveway winds from the street entrance to the lodge-keeper's quarters at the rear. The terraced slope to the river has a buttressed edge, and wonderful possibilities, for delightful escape from a hot day, when the hedge of barberry and roses grow thick enough and the shade trees florish.
The estate is to be known henceforth as "Glengarda Ursuline Academy of Our Lady of Prompt Succor." The home of St. Angela, who founded the Ursuline religious, bordered on the picturesque, mountainous Lake Garda in Italy, hence the choice of the name. The site will be used for school purposes and as soon as possible will be adorned with a group of buildings.