On the grassy hill between McMahon Hall and the Pryzbyla Center is where in 1803 Samuel Harrison Smith and his wife Margaret Bayard Smith built a manor house that would later serve as one of Catholic University's early campus buildings.
The Smith property, also known as the Middleton Estate, was purchased by the bishops for the purpose of building the University in the 1886. The tract of land, acquired by the bishops, consisted of sixty-five acres and cost $29,500. The Paulist Fathers, who were among the first to respond when religious communities were invited to affiliate with the new university, occupied the building from 1889 until 1914. They called it St. Thomas Aquinas College, and it was renamed St. Thomas Hall when it came to Catholic University as a dormitory. It served in this manner until 1933 when it was repurposed as the School of Social Service. The building was demolished in 1970.
For the broader narrative, click here.