Saint Rose Priory was founded in 1806 by Fr. Fenwick from Maryland. It was the first Dominican religious house and the second oldest priory in the U.S. The site was also the location of the first Catholic college west of the Alleghenies in 1807 and of St. Thomas School from 1809 to 1828. Jefferson Davis, later President of the Confederacy, was a student there from 1815 to 1816. In 1822 Fr. Wilson founded the first community of Dominican Sisters in the U.S., and the present church was built in 1852.