Formerly known as Rathfarnham House, Loreto Abbey was built in 1725 for William Palliser. In the middle of the 1790s, it was purchased by George Grierson, King's printer in Ireland, but after the Union he left Rathfarnham House and took up farming at nearby Woodtown Park. The property had been lying empty for some years before it was purchased by Archbishop Murray of Dublin in 1821. A school was established there under the care of Frances Ball (Mother Teresa), who moved into the house in 1822 and renamed it Loreto after the Holy House of Loreto in Italy.
