St. Bernardine of Siena College. You’ve heard of it.

I’ve lived in the Capital District for something like 40 years. In all that time, I’ve never heard of Siena College referred to as anything but Siena College. I was even tangentially involved in Syracuse’s big “Beat Siena Week,” but was unaware the college had once sported a grander moniker. But here’s this undated postcard with the title “St. Bernardine of Siena College.” Turns out, when the college’s first building’s cornerstone was laid in 1938, that’s what it was called. (Given that it is a Franciscan school, perhaps “laid” is the wrong term.) The school’s history doesn’t make clear just when they dropped the saint from their name, though the sign inset in the postcard may indicate it was always mostly known as “Siena.”

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