On 'Holy Ground,' A New Set of Choices

Sister Ellen Carr had a real estate headache that required more than five years of planning and $2.5 million in fundraising to resolve. Her order of nuns owned an old 50,000-square-foot convent and former school on 11 acres of land perched on a hill overlooking Baltimore. The setting was lovely, but the property had become too expensive to maintain.

Sell or renovate?

The question had strong emotional overtones for the Franciscan Sisters of Baltimore, who merged with the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi in 2001. The nuns wanted to stay in Baltimore and continue their ministry of serving low-income individuals and families. The religious order had deep ties to its neighborhood, dating to 1917, when they opened an orphanage that later housed 300 African American children and a convent for 40 nuns.

When the orphanage closed in 1960, the sisters turned it into a school for the developmentally disabled. When the school shut down in the 1990s, the sisters, whose numbers were dwindling, had more space than they needed.

As the 29 sisters who lived at the convent aged (many were in their eighties and nineties), the lack of handicapped access exacerbated the convent's other shortcomings -- drafty windows, inadequate air conditioning and a heating system "we prayed over to keep it going," Carr said.

The hybrid solution -- partial sale, major rehab -- has become one possible model for the growing number of religious communities that are property rich but cash poor.

Since last year, the sisters have been sharing their property in Baltimore in a way that enables them to take care of their own and put the building and grounds to a new use. Their order formed a partnership with Homes for America, a nonprofit developer in Annapolis that specializes in affordable housing. The sisters kept and rehabilitated one floor of one wing of their property, plus their chapel and common areas. They now have a supportive living environment for eight frail elderly nuns who are cared for by nursing assistants around the clock and a registered nurse two days a week.

The order also retained ownership of most of the grounds, the cemetery and a smaller historic stone building. It sold the rest of its former motherhouse to Homes for America and leases the stone house to that firm for use as a community center.

The developer renovated the space into 30 apartments and townhouses that make up an intergenerational community called Clare Court. It serves three distinct groups: families adopting multiple siblings from the Baltimore foster-care system, people with physical or developmental disabilities, and seniors.

In addition to the frail elderly nuns who live in the wing the order still owns, a dozen Sisters of St. Francis, ranging in age from their late forties to mid-eighties, live in eight of Clare Court's apartments.

Sister Margaret Gardner, 85, who shares an apartment with another nun, is one of them. She likes being close to other members of her order. She also said she appreciates the spaciousness and airiness of her new living quarters, which include a living room, a dining area, a kitchen, high ceilings and lots of windows. "Before, we had small rooms; we used to call them cells," said the former teacher, who has been a nun for 65 years.

Gardner is organizing a library for the 33 children who live at Clare Court. She has purchased such classics as "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," as well as stories by African American authors. "The children are getting used to us," she said. "A couple of the older sisters really blossom when they see the children," who come over to play bingo or for a story hour.