Notre Dame College (New Hampshire)

Notre Dame College was a Roman Catholic college located in Manchester, New Hampshire, United States, and affiliated with the Sisters of Holy Cross of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. After more than 50 years of operation, it closed in May 2002, due to "difficult enrollment and financial issues."

Notre Dame was founded as a college exclusively for the education of women in 1950 arising from the "Teacher Training Institute" which the Sisters of the Holy Cross had established five years prior. It originally occupied two buildings in the well-to-do section of North Manchester. The main building had once been a private mansion designed in the Norman style of architecture, while the adjoining building had actually served as the carriage house. Though a few of the earlier students resided in the upper rooms of the main building, most of the enrolled women commuted to classes from Manchester and its immediate environs. In fact, never in its entire history would the school draw less than half of its students from within commuting distance, and the solid majority of those who attended Notre Dame were the first in their families to attend college, and were from modest to average income households.

Originally intended as a school to train future teachers, Notre Dame remained firm to this commitment while simultaneously branching out into the liberal arts and sciences, business and fine arts, and later on into such fields as communications and the health sciences. Most of the additional buildings to the campus were private homes of various sizes purchased in succeeding years to serve as residence halls for the growing number of students from further distances as well as for administrative offices. However, in the late 1960s, Holy Cross Hall was constructed to function as the epicenter of college activity. The three-level building contained nearly all academic facilities along with an auditorium-gymnasium, chapel and dining hall. The original Norman-style mansion became known as Vezeau House (named in honor of long-serving college president Sister Jeannette Vezeau, CSC), and served as the main administration building. The carriage house was renovated and expanded to become the Paul Harvey Library, named in honor of a local businessman and benefactor, and at its height contained 60,000 volumes and 700 periodical subscriptions, as well as faculty offices and seminar rooms. The only building aside from Holy Cross Hall constructed from scratch was the Nicholas Isaak Student Center which housed a large recreation room as well as student activities and government offices. In later years, the college would purchase a former motel situated about a mile and a half away to serve as additional dormitory space. At the time of its closing, Notre Dame had 22 buildings located throughout North Manchester with a residence hall capacity for approximately 250 students.

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