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6300 SW Nicol Road
Portland, OR 97223
(503) 246-7771



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The 1900s

Miss Eleanor Tibbetts served as principal of St. Helen’s Hall until 1904, when the Sisters of St. John Baptist were put in charge. There was considerable objection to the change in administration, but Bishop Morris urged it strongly and successfully. The Sisters of St. John Baptist was founded in England in 1857 and established affiliates in the United States in 1881. Their expenses were paid from school funds but they received no salaries. The mother superior and one sister arrived on April 7, 1904, but they were not invited to the commencement at the Hall on June 15. Miss Tibbetts reluctantly turned over the keys on June 30. When the sisters presented the accounts of the school to the Board of Trustees the following June, the trustees were please with their performance.

In 1906, Bishop Benjamin Wistar Morris died. That same year, a resolution was adopted by the Diocese specifying that the board would be composed of seven people: the bishop, three clergy, and three laymen. Its duties specifically included financial administration of the school, and the Board was incorporated in the state of Oregon.

Information for this page was condensed from The First Century, a history of St. Helen's Hall written by Sally Reed Stout.

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