page_title: Charles H. Stonestreet
section_title: Gonzaga College and St. Aloysius Church
hierarchical_section_title: Charles H. Stonestreet / Gonzaga College and St. Aloysius Church
caption_attribution_description: English: Negative of St. Aloysius Church in Washington, D.C. and Gonzaga College High School in the right background
context_page_description: Charles Henry Stonestreet was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who served in prominent religious and academic positions, including as provincial superior of the Jesuit Maryland Province and president of Georgetown University. He was born in Maryland and attended Georgetown University, where he co-founded the Philodemic Society. After entering the Society of Jesus and becoming a professor at Georgetown, he led St. John's Literary Institution and St. John the Evangelist Church in Frederick, Maryland. He was appointed president of Georgetown University in 1851, holding the office for two years, during which time he oversaw expansion of the university's library. The First Plenary Council of Baltimore was held at Georgetown during his tenure.
  As provincial superior, Stonestreet worked with Anthony Ciampi in the aftermath of the devastating fire at the College of the Holy Cross, and addressed growing anti-Catholicism. Owing to violence from the Know Nothings, he forbade Jesuits from wearing their clerical attire in public or being addressed by their ecclesiastical titles. He later became president of Gonzaga College, where he oversaw the establishment and construction of St.
context_section_description: Upon the selection of Burchard Villiger as the provincial superior of the Maryland province, Stonestreet succeeded him as president of the Washington Seminary on April 25, 1858. Stonestreet petitioned Congress to grant the school its own congressional charter. Very shortly thereafter, on May 4, 1858, President James Buchanan signed into law the bill independently chartering the Washington Seminary, and recognizing the institution by its new name of Gonzaga College. With this charter came the school's independence from Georgetown University, under whose authority it previously conferred degrees; accordingly, ownership of school's property was transferred from Georgetown to Gonzaga. The school especially credited Representative Richard Henry Clarke with seeing the bill through Congress. The following day, Stonestreet officially declared that Washington Seminary had ceased to exist, and had been replaced by Gonzaga College, though it remained common parlance to refer to the school as the Old Seminary for some time. The school did not exercise its power to confer degrees until 1868, when the first four students completed their studies.
  As president of Gonzaga, Stonestreet led the opening prayer of the House of Representatives on January 24, 1859, and of the Senate on February 9, 1859. During his term, the school's literary society, which had been founded in 1855, was renamed the Phocion Society, and Stonestreet was considered its founder. While president of Gonzaga College, Stonestreet oversaw the establishment and construction of St. Aloysius Church, which would be staffed by Jesuit priests whose service was no longer needed at the diocesan St. Patrick's Church. The church, designed by fellow Jesuit Benedict Sestini, was dedicated in November 1859; at its dedication, Archbishop John Hughes and James Ryder delivered sermons.
  In 1860, he sent his resignation as president of the school to the Jesuit Superior General, relinquishing the presidency as well as his pastorate of St. Aloysius Church. William Francis Clarke was appointed as his successor.
caption: St. Aloysius Church (left) and Gonzaga College (right)