[3] The college was situated on the land of the former Ellicott brothers hotel and a tavern, adjacent to a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station along the Patapsco River.
[4] In 1866, after years of neglect, the buildings and 110 acres (0.45 km2) site were sold by George Ellicott to the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists) for $15,000.
Nibali had won a controversial bid from executive J. Hugh Nichols to convert the recently burned Ellicott City Elementary school to apartments.
[9] In 1987 the Maryland Department of Natural Resources acquired a 77 acres (0.31 km2) portion of the site and annexed the land to Patapsco Valley State Park.
A caretaker, Alan Rufus Hudson defended the property from vandals with repeated arrests for assault.
[11] The college was one of many historical buildings in the region with valuable real estate that was lost to arson, including The Volkmann Manor (1965), Troy Hill (1990), Avondale Mill (1991), Ammendale Normal Institute (1998), Phelps Log Cabin - Moved from North Laurel to Elkridge (2001), Thistle Manufacturing Company, located directly across the river from St. Mary's (2003),[12] and Henryton State Hospital (2007 and 2011)[13][14]