Finger Lakes history · regional story
A farm became a school on Hemlock Lake
The Divine Word alumni history follows its Conesus property from farm to seminary, including the cooking and laundry work that supported the school.
The institution was often called Conesus, but its farm stood on Hemlock Lake. The Divine Word alumni account dates the purchase in Conesus Township to 1924 and the school’s opening, with 25 students, to 1936. Conesus, New York: Divine Word Seminary.
The school required daily household work. The account identifies Sisters of St. Francis from Vienna providing cooking and laundry, and dates a new convent to 1941. Their work belongs in the school’s history alongside its teaching programs. Conesus, New York: Divine Word Seminary.
Those programs changed. The alumni history records a 1947 move of the belated-vocations program to Bordentown, a clerical novitiate in 1950 and a junior college in 1955. It dates the seminary’s permanent closing to 1984 and a sale the following year. Conesus, New York: Divine Word Seminary.
Sources & research notes
Review status: Developing history. Human editorial review is pending.
Written and source-checked with AI assistance under an owner-authorized editorial process. This is not a personal review by Riley or an independent historian. Sources and unresolved questions are listed below; corrections are welcome.
- What the records establish
- The owning order’s alumni account identifies distinct stages of purchase, schooling, household support, program change and closure.
- What remains uncertain
- We have not inspected deeds, school registers, convent records or individual accounts. The institutional history does not establish each person’s experience or present ownership and access.
- What we are researching next
- Find school catalogs, convent correspondence, service records and dated property instruments. Treat any later interview as a separately consented source, not permission to publish private recollections.
Sources
- Conesus, New York: Divine Word Seminary — Divine Word Alumni Association; adapted from John Morgan, Communities of the Word: The Conesus Story; Not stated. Locator: 1924 and 1930s sections; 1941 convent; 1947 program move; 1950 clerical novitiate; 1955 junior college; 1984 closing and 1985 sale paragraph.. Accessed October 22, 2026.