Flappers & Fiction

Georgetown University celebrated its centenary in February 1889, marking one hundred years since Father John Carroll founded the oldest Catholic college in the Western Hemisphere. Founded in 1789 during the temporary suppression of the Jesuit order, the university began as a modest academy but has grown into an impressive institution with magnificent new buildings constructed of Potomac blue gneiss in Rhenish Romanesque style. The campus overlooks the Potomac River and includes the original academy building, still in use today, alongside modern facilities like the new library funded by E. Francis Riggs and Gaston Memorial Hall. The university houses valuable art treasures, historical relics including items from the Carroll family, and serves as both an educational institution and repository of early American Catholic history.