The Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary were founded in Cork, Ireland, in 1775 by Nano Nagle, primarily for the education and service of the poor. In 1874, Mother Joseph Hickey and eleven other Presentation Sisters left Ireland to come to New York at the invitation of the Reverend Arthur Donnelly, pastor of Saint Michael's Church. Before embarking on their long journey, the missionary band knelt at the tomb of their foundress to seek her blessing. Their steamship, City of Paris, reached New York on September 8, 1874. Soon after their arrival, the Sisters began their work of teaching in the still-unfinished school on West 31st Street, "amid bricks and mortar, dust and workmen." The first enrollment was 600 children.

The school and the community florished. In 1884, Mother Teresa Reynolds and four other Sisters established a home for orphaned children at the Frost Farm on Staten Island. This group eventually separated from the Manhattan community to become the Sisters of the Presentation of Staten Island. In 1886, a second group of Sisters, under the leadership of Mother Magdalen Keating, left New York to establish a new Presentation foundation in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

From those early beginnings at Saint Michael's, the Sisters of the Presentation went on to found schools and initiate new ministries in many locations in the northeaster United States and elsewhere.