The seminary began in 1823 as St. Francis Regis Seminary, a mission school for indigenous children, comprising some log buildings and a large farm worked by the enslaved people to support the missionaries. As the indigenous people moved farther west and south, the school ceased operation in 1831, and the onsite novitiate was expanded.[4] It was named for Stanislaus Kostka.
The seminary was closed in 1971 due to fewer religious vocations and the post-Vatican II movement to urban areas. Two years earlier, it had already transferred its collegiate program to Saint Louis University. Most of what was left of the property, 35 acres (140,000 m2), was sold to The Missouri District of The United Pentecostal Church International, and then the property housed Urshan College (formerly Gateway College of Evangelism) and Urshan Graduate School of Theology. The Old Rock Building and 4 acres (16,000 m2) of land remained Jesuit property until 2003.[9]
In 1973, the seminary became the Museum of the Western Jesuit Missions, but closed again in 2001, the museum moving to Saint Louis University to become part of the Museum of Art there.[6] Among other items, the museum contained two oil paintings from 1933 by John A. Mallin, one of Ignatius Loyola and the other, Francis Xavier,[10] which stood at the entrance to the chapel.[11]
The property was largely self-sufficient in its day. The still-standing Rock Building was built by the priests, novices and enslaved workers. Limestone was quarried from the banks of the Missouri River; the walls are 3 feet (0.91 m) thick. Wood came from walnut, logged from the property, and the bricks were fired on site. The seminary had an orchard, a chickenranch, a cattlebarn, wheatfields, vineyards, a butcher shop, a creamery, and a bakery. The former farm property is now owned by Saint Louis County, which leases it to the Missouri Department of Conservation as a conservation area,[12][13] with hiking trails.