A Former Seminary Hides in Plain Sight at Botelle School

By Stephanie Funk
Sometimes it seems as though Norfolk is virtually unchanged, that the familiar buildings and streets have always been there. To some extent this is true, but as the saying goes, the only constant is change.
An example of this lies within the familiar walls and grounds of Botelle Elementary School, located on Greenwoods Road East.

The University of Connecticut has an extensive collection of aerial photographs
(magic.lib.uconn.edu) taken throughout the years and covering the entire state. The collection starts in 1934 and progresses up to this century. Its Norfolk photos from 1934 show that the area that holds present-day Botelle Elementary was completely different. There were no buildings, no dry dam and none of today’s outside amenities.

In the late 1950s, change began to occur. On the 15-acre tract of land fronted by Greenwoods Road East, the Order of Augustinian Recollects, or OAR, built a new seminary with two buildings for their students. According to Catholic News Archive, the facility was named the Recollect Augustinian Fathers’ St. Nicholas of Tolentine Seminary.

The OAR website describes the order, whose roots go back to 1500s Spain, as a group of friars, “living in accord with the way of life that Saint Augustine devised for his companions in religious community.” The OAR formally established the Province of St. Augustine in the United States in 1943, in Omaha, Ne., and added several centers over the following decades, including the one in Norfolk.

Norfolk’s was a minor seminary for OAR, but they expected it to grow. Opened in 1960 and dedicated in 1964, the brand-new brick, steel and glass buildings contained dormitory space for up to 60 students. The facility also contained a store, prefects’ quarters, five music rooms, a skating rink and a large gymnasium/auditorium that could hold 750 people and was equipped with modern stage lighting and sound equipment.

Plans were floated by OAR to one day expand the facility to a capacity of 100 with the construction of another dormitory building off the south end of the main building and to add a circular chapel on the north side. Architects’ renderings were drawn up and published in local newspapers. These plans, however, never came to fruition.

While they had anticipated a surge in students, OAR instead found themselves struggling with what was termed a “worldwide crisis in faith,” with enrollment dropping significantly. By the 1968–69 college year, they had stopped accepting new students. In 1970, they closed the seminary permanently.

The Town of Norfolk acquired the property in 1971 and opened the new school, named in honor of longtime Center School teacher Myrtle Botelle.

While there have been many physical changes to the buildings and grounds over the half century since the town made it a grade school, the original bones of the seminary facility can easily be seen, particularly in the Hall of Flags and the gymnasium.

So, should anyone look at Norfolk and think there have been no changes, they might look more closely and find that some of them have simply blended in with the fabric
of the town.