Newark, New Jersey
The Most Blessed Sacrament Friary, previously known as the Monastery of Saint Dominic, was originally the home of an order of Dominican nuns. The monastery was built in the early 1880’s and it was modeled after the monasteries of the Old World. Some features of these monasteries were arched cloisters, a traditional well, a vault resting-place for the departed of the community, and double grilles which separated the outer world from those on the inside.
In 1880, four nuns from Oullins, France, came to Newark, New Jersey to establish the first permanent American foundation of cloistered nuns at the monastery. The Monastery of Saint Dominic was one of the few places in the United States, at the time, where women led monastic lives of contemplation.