BRONX, N.Y. - The Quad at Manhattan College is a peaceful oasis in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. But why is Manhattan College in rhe Bronx? Well, it actually got its start further south in Lower Manhattan, when members of the Brothers of the Christian Schools from France came to New York in 1848. 

"When they arrived they set up a school in the basement of St. Vincent's Parish on Canal Street and established their school and it became very popular," explained Amy Surak, Director of Archives and Special Collections at Manhattan College.

It was so popular they ran out of space and would move north to 131st Street and Broadway. And in 1853 Manhattan College was born.

Seventy years later, the college would move north once again to the Bronx, but kept its name.

"Most of the city obviously grew northwood and with the expansion of the subways we sort of got pushed out of our space. And so we built this big campus, at the time, and moved up here in 1923," Surak said.

The campus library's collection includes one of the first typewriter models, from the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, to thousand of Catholic relics.

"Primary relics are bones, or pieces of the body of saints, that bring you closer to god, and so because we are a catholic religious institution, we have a vast collection of those," Surak said.

Manhattan College's sports teams are known as the Jaspers. So what is a Jasper? Actually, the question is, who was Jasper? Brother Jasper of Mary was the school's Dean of disipline and Baseball Coach who some credit with creating the 7th Inning Stretch, though that has a topic of debate among baseball historians. 

"A Jasper, it's not a bird, it's actually named for Brother Jasper, so it's sort of paying tribute to our history," Surak said.