CONVENT OF OUR LADY OF MERCY, _Legare and Queen Streets_: This large brick building is of quite recent construction, but the Sisters of Mercy have been in Charleston more than a hundred years. Misses Mary Joseph and Honora O’Gorman, their niece, Mary Teresa Barry, fourteen years and six months old, and Miss Mary Burke arrived in Charleston November 23, 1829, coming on the invitation of Bishop John M. England. The Misses O’Gorman were natives of Cork, living in Baltimore, Maryland. December 10 they accepted the habit of religion, with Sister Mary Joseph as superioress of the new Community. In a small house on Friend (now Legare) Street the Sisters established the Academy of Our Lady of Mercy in December, 1830. Two years later the Bishop established a seminary and appointed Sister Mary Martha (Miss Honora O’Gorman) to its supervision. The Orphanage, Queen and Logan Streets, was established in 1840, under the care of the Sisters. The St. Francis Xavier Infirmary, Ashley Avenue and Calhoun Street, dates to 1882; it began in the McHugh residence, Magazine Street. In 1870 the Sisters acquired the old Nathaniel Russell house, 51 Meeting Street, relinquishing it on the completion of the new Convent. From the Charleston Community of Sisters of Mercy have gone other communities into both Carolinas and Georgia. Nor yellow fever nor war nor earthquake has swerved these consecrated women. They were angels of mercy in the yellow fever epidemics of 1835 and 1852. They nursed friend and foe alike in the War for Southern Independence. Notwithstanding the alarm and excitement in the time of the earthquake (1886) they ministered calmly, sweetly, efficiently to the sick and the injured. [Illustration: _Miles Brewton House, 27 King Street_] [Illustration: _“Sword Gates,” 32 Legare Street_] [Illustration: _Gateway, Home of Herbert Ravenel Sass, Author, 23 Legare Street_] BISHOP ENGLAND HIGH SCHOOL, _203 Calhoun Street_: Long have the Catholics of Charleston had their parochial schools and the Academy of Our Lady of Mercy for girls. In 1914, in the pro-Cathedral, next to the Convent, Bishop Northrop established the Bishop England High School. Outgrowing these accommodations, it was transferred to the former home of the Cenacle Nuns in Calhoun Street, and on this site later the present large building was erected. Under the principalship of the Reverend Joseph L. O’Brien, the school has acquired a shining progress.