The History of Mount Providence

February 10, 2001

Mrs. Ginni Mittler 314-209-9181 (office) or 314-355-6248 (h)

Providence Center (business hours) 314-209-9181

Sr. Janet Folkl, CDP, provincial (h) 314-771-2033

Sr. Ann Pairn, CDP, assistant provincial (h) 314-355-7427

Sr. Barbara McMullen, CDP, director of associates (h) 618-931-6650\

Mount Providence imploded;

Mount Providence School, Chapel, Motherhouse and ministry center fell to the ground in a 15-second implosion at 8:00 a.m. Saturday, February 10, after standing for more than 68 years as a hilltop landmark at 8351 Florissant Road off Interstate 70 in Normandy. Ahrens Contracting Inc. of East St. Louis, a demolition and excavation contractor, performed all preparation and drilling for Dykon Explosive Corp. of Tulsa, Okla., to load the building for implosion; Ahrens will complete the cleanup.

What remains standing today after the implosion is the Divine Providence community, the relationships they fostered within the walls and on the grounds of Mount Providence, and many of the ministries begun there. In fact, some of the Sisters of Divine Providence (CDPs) and their associates watched the implosion from the grounds of Christ Memorial Baptist Church, a partner in a CDP-sponsored homeless ministry once housed at Mount Providence and still operating in St. Louis County.

"Despite very human sadness at this time, I am very aware that we remain living witnesses to God’s Providence," said Sister Janet Folkl, CDP provincial and Providence Ministry Corp. chairperson.

Sister Folkl sees the demolition as another phase of the property’s purpose in promoting the community’s reverence for life. The demolition clears the way for the Missouri Department of Transportation to straighten dangerous curves in I-70 at Cool Valley between Bermuda and Hanley. UM-St. Louis purchased the 26-acre site from the CDPs in 1996. Working with MoDOT in the fall of 2000, the university exchanged the property for a new entrance to the campus at Florissant Road.

"Over a span of 70 years, Mount Providence was a place where we cared for and honored the lives of children, unwed teenagers and their babies, and the elderly, in addition to forming young women to become sisters. Now, especially in light of our mission that includes ‘holding all life sacred,’ we are grateful for the many lives that will be saved by the straightening of the highway," Sister Folkl said.

"In all of the letting go, we are grateful to have been given the opportunity to witness so clearly to our deep trust – in God, in one another and in those we serve." (more)

During 1994-95 meetings, in the spirit of responsible stewardship, the sisters agreed to "let go" of the five-floor, three-wing Mount Providence School, Motherhouse, and adjacent buildings and property. At the same time, they reaffirmed their 1990 corporate commitment to the homeless, expressed partly through Room At The Inn homeless shelter in St. Louis County and La Posada Providencia refugee shelter in San Benito, Texas, both under the umbrella of Providence Ministry Corp.

From the 1994-95 meetings, through negotiations to sell the property, and even less than a month before transferring the property to UMSL in December 1996, the community was uncertain where it would relocate its central site. This uncertainty put the sisters more in touch with the daily experience of the homeless that the community had committed itself to serve, "experiencing, in the loss of our home, just a little of what the homeless live with every day," according to one sister at the time.

Reflecting on the five-year relocation process, Sister Folkl said, "We have entrusted ourselves to God’s providential care, aware of God-with-us during each new step of our journey."

In January 1997, CDP administration and ministries moved temporarily to St. Bartholomew Parish, Hazelwood, which had been a night site for Room At The Inn. After a permanent site was located, it was renovated by ARCO Construction; and in March 1999, the CDPs moved their province and ministry offices, gathering space and archives into Providence Center, 3415 Bridgeland Drive, across from DePaul Hospital.

Sisters in need of nursing assistance and others who enjoy large-group living moved to a leased section of the CDP-sponsored St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Granite City, Ill., joining five nursing sisters already living there; today, there are 20 sisters in that convent. The other 31 sisters affiliated with the St. Louis Province live singly or in small groups near their individual ministries.

Meanwhile, the former Mount Providence continued to serve the poor and needy, responding to "the signs of the times" (as CDP founder Bishop William Emmanuel von Ketteler had directed the first sisters to do). The1950s novitiate section, leased in the 1990s as Villa Maria shelter for unwed mothers, was later leased by UMSL to YouthBuild, a program that trains youth-at-risk in the construction trades and gives them experience in building a house for a low-income family. Ketteler Hall (where the sisters would read, sew and have quiet recreation in the evenings) became a temporary home to Connection Aftercare Ministries Inc., which offers life-skills training to former prisoners and their families.

Previously, the property promoted the community’s transforming mission through various ministries, including:

– Mount Providence School, founded in 1933 as a boarding school for boys, becoming a day school in 1984-85 and then becoming co-ed in 1988;

– Catholic Charities’ Villa Maria home for unwed mothers, in leased space in "the stone house" from 1956-69, then in the Motherhouse from 1992-97;

– Rainbow Mini-School, from August 1991 to 1996, providing education and before- and after-school care for 2- to 5-year olds, including some homeless children who received "scholarships" through benefactors;

– Room At The Inn, which came to Mount Providence in February 1992 as a co-sponsored ministry of the Salvation Army and the CDPs, and became fully sponsored by the CDPs in April 1993; and

– UMSL Eldercare center, which was opened on the first floor of Mount Providence in June 1985 and remained through June 30, 1999–the final ministry to leave the building.

Sacred and significant elements from Mount Providence were relocated before the implosion. Among them:

– Mount Providence Cemetery was relocated to Calvary Cemetery in January 2000.

– The Ketteler monument and St. Joseph statue from the circle drive were installed at Providence Center, along with a statue of Ketteler and schoolchildren, created in memory of an alumnus killed in action.

– French doors from the original house, the original mantel, antique writing desks and selected other small furnishings from the old property grace the new Center.

– The large cross from Christ the King Chapel is in place at Assumption Parish, Mattisse, Mo.; and the organ is in use at St. Jerome Parish, Bissell Hills, Mo.

– The stained-glass windows from the chapel are being used at St. Ignatius of Antioch, Nashville, Tenn., where a Sister Maria Patterson, CDP, a native of Madison, Ill., has been serving for more than a decade.

CDPs in the St. Louis Province serve primarily in St. Louis, Sedalia, Mo., and Southern Illinois (Brussels, Centralia, Collinsville, Granite City, Jerseyville, Litchfield, Madison and Maryville). They also serve in Stevens Point, Wis.; Nashville, Tenn.; San Benito, Texas; and Cluj, Romania.

The sisters’ ministries include administration, archiving, art and design, business-office management, child-care, education and tutoring, health care and promotion, housekeeping, liturgy planning, meeting facilitation and consulting, mental-health therapy, parish ministry to youth and elderly, prayer ministry, refugee aid, secretarial work and vocation outreach.

The CDPs in St. Louis are part of a North American community including St. Peter Province, Pittsburgh, Our Lady Province, Kingston, Mass.; and Madre de la Divina Providencia region, Puerto Rico. They are also part of an international community with groups in Germany, Korea and Peru.

For 150 years, since their founding in Germany, CDPs have responded to the most pressing social needs of the times. CDPs came to St. Louis to serve at St. Francis de Sales Parish soon after migrating to the United States in 1876. The order took charge of operating St. Elizabeth Hospital, now Medical Center, in Granite City in 1921. The St. Louis Province was established with the 1932 purchase of the Mount Providence property.

(((See: "Selected Dates Significant to the History of Mount Providence")))

May 1996 –Mount Providence School closes: Family Farewell May 23, All-class reunion August 15.

Summer 1996 –Sisters needing nursing assistance and some others move to a leased section of the CDP-sponsored St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Granite City, Ill., joining five nursing sisters already living there.

August 16, 1996 –Rainbow Mini-School closes, hoping to reopen later at a new location.

September 29, 1996 –Ritual for community and friends: "Remembering our past with gratitude, Blessing our leave-taking, Moving into the future with trust"

October 15, 1996 –Auction of household and institutional surplus

November 12, 1996 –Proposal to St. Bartholomew, a partner of Room At The Inn, for interim space

November 18, 1996 –Villa Maria moved from the Mount

December 12, 1996 –Transfer of property to UMSL

January 13, 1997 –Move to St. Bartholomew’s

June 30, 1999 –UMSL Adult Day Care Center, which had remained at the Mount, closes

March 1999 –Move to Providence Center

January 2000 –Mount Providence Cemetery relocated to Calvary Cemetery