The first Ursuline Convent in the Rocky Mountains opened in Miles City on January 18, 1884. Six teaching sisters of the order of St. Ursula from Toledo, Ohio, came to Montana invited by Father Lindesmith, Fort Keogh chaplain. Bishop Brondel requested that three of the sisters settle in Miles City. The three remaining “Lady Blackrobes” traveled south led by Superior Mother Amadeus Dunne to establish St. Labre’s Mission among the Northern Cheyenne.

 

The Convent of the Sacred Heart enrolled both sons and daughters of settlers from all over eastern Montana and taught them the four "R"s (Readin, Ritin, Rithmatic and Religion). Twenty dollars a month paid for their “board, tuition and washing.” In 1897, fire destroyed the original convent. Local ranchers and merchants donated land and prominent Helena architect Charles S. Haire was commissioned to design a new Academy. The three-story brick and stone structure, constructed in formal Colonial Revival style with distinctive Romanesque and Queen Anne elements was completed in 1902.

 

In 1991, when the Catholic Parish announced the aging building would be demolished, a group of local volunteers banded together as “Convent Keepers” saving the building for a Community Center.  The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 5, 1992.

 

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