Mount Saint Mary College in Hooksett, New Hampshire was a Roman Catholic college for women founded in 1934 by the Sisters of Mercy. The college was situated on a campus approximately northwest of Boston. It ceased operations in 1978 due to the increasing trend away from single sex higher education which in turn led to a decline in enrollment from a high of about 500 students to just under 200 at the time of the closing. This decline eventually was the cause of financial difficulties from which the school never recovered. Academic offerings Mount Saint Mary offered baccalaureate degrees in biology, business, dietetics, early childhood education, elementary education, English, French, history, home economics, mathematics, nursing (in conjunction with Catholic Medical Center, a Sisters of Mercy-affiliated hospital in nearby Manchester), secondary education (in accordance with a specific major), social welfare, Spanish and special education. Associate's degrees were conferred in business, early childhood education, home economics and social welfare. The college was one of eight founding members of the New Hampshire College & University Council, which today is a 23-member consortium of two-year and four-year institutions of higher learning in New Hampshire that engage in such cooperative practices as cross-registration, cultural and social exchanges, interlibrary lending, and joint research projects and symposiums. For many years, "The Mount" functioned as the sister school of the formerly all-male Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire, and the two institutions carried on a particularly close academic and social affiliation. Campus The campus of Mount Saint Mary was dominated by Mercy Hall, a five-level (one below ground, four above ground) former mansion featuring white Italian marble as well as mahogany and oak interiors purchased in 1909 by the Sisters of Mercy from the prominent Galt family. The already existing Mount Saint Mary Academy, a preparatory school for girls, was relocated here, ultimately transitioning into college status in 1934. Throughout the existence of the school, this building housed nearly all academic and administrative facilities as well as several auditoriums, a ballroom, a chapel, a dining hall, a gymnasium, and dormitory rooms for resident students. Separate buildings constructed in the early 1960s included McAuley Library (which at the time of closing contained approximately 40,000 volumes and 400 periodical subscriptions) and a resident student complex consisting of three dormitory buildings interconnected to a central student union building. At the northwest edge of the campus was a turn of the