The Bishop Jones Hostel operated on 55 Rennies Mill Road, in St. John’s, from 1930 until the mid 1960s. It provided accommodations to 1359 Newfoundland and Labrador girls. Many of these former residents remain active and contribute in leadership roles in community life at home and abroad.
In July 2008, a group of girls who resided at the Bishop Jones Hostel (Spencer Lodge) held a reunion in St. John’s. The objectives of the reunion planning group were to renew old friendships, to make new ones, to establish a contact network, and to initiate a Bishop Jones Memorial Scholarship to be awarded annually to a deserving student attending Memorial University.
The 2008 reunion was an overwhelming success. It resulted in the creation of the Bishop Jones Memorial Scholarship (awarded annually at MUN). The initial award in 2009 was valued at $500. Last year’s 2022/23 winner received approximately $2300. The scholarship is now fully funded, and will continue in perpetuity. To date, in excess of $17,000 has been awarded to 13 deserving Newfoundland and Labrador recipients.
For more information, you can go to the website www.envision.ca/webs/bishopjoneshostel, or you can contact Shirley Cooper by email at this address:
[email protected].
Contributions to the BJM Scholarship can be made by contacting the scholarship coordinator, at:
Verna G. Smith
267 Elizabeth Ave.
St. John’s, NL,
A1B 1T8.
