This institution is under the direction of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart. The society of which they are members dates its origin in France from the commencement of the present century.

The education of young ladies of the higher class is especially the object of this institute. At the death of the foundress, Madame Barat, which occurred in 1865, the Society of the Sacred Heart already numbered ninetyseven Houses.

The first colony of the Order arrived in the United States in 1818, and settled in St. Louis, Missouri. Other foundations have subsequently been established in the South and West.

Madame the Princess de Galitzine, having been sent from France to visit the Houses in America, soon after her arrival in May, 1841, conducted a colony to New York, where, in September of that same year, a school was opened in Houston street, under the direction of Madame A. Hardey. In 1844, the school was removed to Astoria, Long Island.

The rapid increase of the Academy, the difficulty of access, and other disadvantages, rendered it desirable to seek a more eligible location. In 1847, the ladies purchased their present magnificent site, known as the property of Jacob Lorillard.

The Academy has over three hundred boarding pupils. A day school is attached to the Academy, which counts nearly the same number of children from the surrounding district, who receive gratuitous instruction.

Fifth avenue, between Fifty-first and Fifty-second streets.

This magnificent building was projected by the late Archbishop Hughes; the corner-stone was laid August 15, 1858. It is situated between Fiftyfirst and Fifty-second streets, on the east side of the Fifth avenue, running back to Madison avenue. The building, with its appurtenances, will occupy the entire block. The site is the most elevated on Fifth avenue, there being a gradual descent both southerly and toward the Central Park on the north. A more eligible location could not have been chosen for so vast and imposing a structure.

During the years 1858 and 1859 the foundations were laid, and a part of the structure built, when the work was suspended until the accession of

Archbishop McCloskey, who caused the work to be recommenced, and gave new energy to its prosecution.

The foundations are of immense blocks of stone, laid by derricks, in cement mortar. The first base-course is of Maine granite, similar to that used in the Treasury Building at Washington, and it rests solidly upon the chisel-dressed upper surface of the foundations. Above the base-course the whole structure is of fine white marble. It is from the quarries at Pleasantville, Westchester county, which have been leased for the cathedral. The architect says that it is of a very dense and highly crystalline character; producing, when cut, a very beautiful effect from the reflection of the faces of the crystals, especially in the columns and finer parts of the work.

The style of the building is pure Gothic or “decorated," which prevailed in Europe from 1250 to 1400, and is free alike from the heaviness of an earlier period and from the over-ornamentation and eccentricities of a later period. On the continent the finest examples are at Amiens, Rheims, and Cologne, and in England the naves of York, Lincoln, and Westminster.

The Fifth avenue front will be, of course, the finest outside portion of the building; and its decoration will be of a character unsurpassed in this country. The towers at the two corners will reach the height of three hundred and twenty-eight feet from the ground to the top of the cross. The following are the dimensions of the building proper: Extreme length outside, 332 feet; extreme breadth at transepts, 174 feet; general breadth, 132 feet.

The towers will be thirty-two feet square at the base, and of the same area from base to the point at which the form changes to the octagonal. The width of the front, between the towers, will be one hundred and five feet. The towers maintain the square form to the height of one hundred and thirty-six feet, when they change to octagonal lanterns or domes, fiftyfour feet high, and then rise in spires to a further height of one hundred and thirty-eight feet, making three hundred and twenty-eight feet in all.

The central gable between the two towers will be one hundred and fifty-six feet high above the pavement. The main entrance, twelve feet in depth (being the thickness of the wall), will be richly decorated, flanked on either side by a large, painted window, and embowered in carved devices of religious significance. The width of the opening of the door is thirty feet, and its height fifty-one feet. It has columns with bases and foliage caps, and the arch is richly ornamented and fringed with a double row of foliated tracery. Terminating at the top in a mock finial, it will form itself a symbol of the whole front. The gable over the main entrance will be richly paneled with traceries, with a shield bearing the arms of the diocese i the central panel. The moulding over the gable will be crotcheted, and have large, rich finials of American foliage. Across the front gable, over the entrance, there will extend a row of niches, with stat

ues of saints and martyrs, seven feet and six inches high. Above this will be a large rose or circular window, twenty-six feet in diameter-a splendid blossom of Gothic tracery, with a hundred shafts of marble radiating from the center, and holding triangular pieces of painted glass. Above this is the window of the main gable, richly paneled and decorated.

The towers at each side will be divided into three stories; the first with doors corresponding to the main entrance, the second with a window richly decorated, and the third with four small windows on each side. Above the square tower will be octagonal lanterns fifty-four feet high, with windows, and above this, as we have before stated, the richly paneled spires. The towers and spires are to be ornamented with buttresses, niches with statues, and pinnacles on the towers, so arranged as to disguise the change of form from the square to the octagon. The inside of the towers will be twenty feet in diameter and octagonal in form.

The transept fronts are divided into a nave with two side aisles with doors and windows with niche-traceries, &c. The doors are twenty-five feet wide by forty-four feet high, and windows twenty-seven feet wide by fiftyseven feet high. The height of the transept gables is one hundred and seventy-five feet to the tops of the crosses which ornament them.

The Madison avenue front is to be used merely for the entrance of the priests, and will not be remarkable for ornamentation, though the same general effect will be preserved, to prevent too great a contrast.

There will be in all one hundred and three windows, set in double tiers at the sides, the lower thirty-two feet in height, and the upper twenty-eight feet, giving a lofty and grand effect. They will be glazed, with double lead sash, with two thicknesses of glass, and with an air space between them to prevent the down currents of air, which are very disagreeable in many ordinary churches. The glass will be stained in rich and varied patterns, giving the interior that "dim, religious light" which from time immemorial has been considered so essential.

The interior of the building will be divided into nave, transept, and choir. The following are the dimensions: Internal length, 306 feet; breadth of buildings, 96 feet; breadth of chapels on each side, 12 feet; total breadth, 120 feet; internal length of transepts, 140 feet; height of nave, 108 feet; breadth of nave 48 feet.

The nave and transepts have a central nave and two side-aisles, with chapels in the nave, with a width of ninety-six feet without the chapels, and of one hundred and twenty feet with them. The choir and sanctuary have a central nave and four side-aisles, with an extreme width of one hundred and sixteen feet. The height of the side-aisles will be fifty-four feet, and their breadth in the nave twenty-four feet. The nave will be divided from the aisles by thirty-two clustered columns of white marble. The arches of the nave and aisles will be of brick plastered and decorated in colors.

The choir will have five bays, and will be arranged with double aisles on either side of the central aisle. The chapel of the Blessed Virgin is in the aisle at the right of the central aisle, and the sacristies in the aisle at the left. The high altar at the eastern side will be of white marble, with a magnificent altar-screen of colored marble columns, with white marble niches and statues.

The main part of the building will be first completed, the towers being the latest portion of the work. When finished it will be the largest, most expensive, and probably the finest building of the kind in the country.

It is built, as were the churches of the olden time, by the free-will offerings of the Catholic community. Its total cost is estimated at four millions of dollars.