St. Joseph Center sets ambitious agenda for 2013

Center needs at least $2.5 million to renovate former orphanage

Published: December 15, 2012

By Dwain Hebda
Associate Editor

Dwain Hebda

Sandy DeCoursey, chairwoman of St. Joseph Center of Arkansas, sits outside the 52,000-square foot building. Needed capital improvements are estimated to cost at least $2.5 million.

Dwain Hebda

Sandy DeCoursey, chairwoman of St. Joseph Center of Arkansas, sits outside the 52,000-square foot building. Needed capital improvements are estimated to cost at least $2.5 million.

St. Joseph Center of Arkansas generated momentum in its effort to revitalize the sprawling former orphanage in 2012.

The 11-member board is looking to capitalize on those successes with an even more ambitious 2013.

"As with any major project, we have experienced the 'two steps forward, one step back' phenomenon, but the good news is in 2012 we have established some good traction," said Sandy DeCoursey, SJCA chairwoman. "Momentum is still slow but, praise God, steady."

Annually more than 10,000 people are impacted by the center's activities and those of its tenants, not the least of which comes from the revitalized vegetable gardens that generated an estimated 500 pounds of food weekly for the needy during the past growing season. The group's 2012 accomplishments also include hosting two successful fundraisers and completing an engineering assessment of the building to determine renovation funding needs.

DeCoursey said the engineering assessment identified between $2.5 and $3 million in necessary renovations. The improvements are almost exclusively electrical and mechanical, although other work on the building's soffit, wooden porches and balconies is also long overdue. The building's overall structural soundness, however, was a welcome piece of good news.

Determining needs and costs for renovating the 52,000-square foot, 80-room, four-story structure is one important step toward the launch of a capital campaign, something DeCoursey lists as a major goal for 2013. Before that can happen, however, the group is working to raise the funds to enlist the services of a professional consultant to shepherd them through the implementation of the drive.

St. Joseph Center took strides in that direction, with its two fundraisers, both held in November. The first "Chair-ity" event, held at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock, auctioned off 50 chairs and end tables from the center, decorated by local artists. The event brought in $25,000. A second fundraiser, a free Little Rock concert by pianist Julie Cheek and principal members of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, brought an additional $2,500 in donations.

"As a board, we hold fast to the belief that the capacity to raise funds for this project does exist," DeCoursey said. "The response to our first major fundraising events is a testament to that belief."

Not all of the money raised during the events is available for getting the capital campaign off the ground. Despite being on the National Register of Historic Places, St. Joseph Center receives no public funding or money from major charities and the group has not yet managed to generate enough income to meet its $10,000 in monthly operating costs.

Still, having signed agreements with not-for-profit tenants, including St. Anne Church and San Jose Art Studio, along with private donations and rental fees from groups conducting retreats and ministries, has made launching the capital campaign in 2013 a reachable goal, DeCoursey said.

It is an organizational posture four years in the making. In 2008, an Arkansas Catholic article announcing the center being put up for sale led DeCoursey and a group of concerned Catholics to form an ad hoc committee and express an interest in repurposing the center. Over the next two years, the group, which organized as a non-profit, worked with diocesan leaders to negotiate a lease. The result was a 50-year lease for the property, signed in September 2010.

"We are grateful for being given the opportunity to take on this challenge," DeCoursey said about the progress made thus far. "The diocese has been patient with us, and I believe would like for SJCA to be successful."

A visit to the center reveals that, in spite of the extensive renovation required, the underpinning architecture and aesthetics of the building are still impressive. Designed by renowned local architect Charles L. Thompson, the yellow brick and stone building resembles an Italian villa complete with red-tiled roof, chapel with arched stained glass windows and marble floors.

The building was constructed in 1910 for $150,000, the equivalent of $3.6 million today, which does not include the cost of the original 720 acres of land upon which it sat (all but 63 acres have since been sold). Perched atop a hill and predating the construction next door of Camp Pike of the Arkansas Army National Guard by seven years, the building and its signal cupola lantern enhancing a white cross could be seen for miles.

"The resounding response for those who visit St. Joseph Center, many for the first time is, 'What an incredible place, we have to figure out a way to keep it,'" DeCoursey said. "Obviously, we agree."

Bishop John B. Morris directed the Benedictine sisters of St. Scholastic Monastery in Fort Smith to staff what was then an orphanage and over the next 100 years a total of 116 nuns lived there, caring for the children and elderly residents who had no place else to go. One of those children, Dana Walker, a member of the Cathedral of St. Andrew, today serves on the center board.

"St. Joseph Home, as it was called when I was there, saved my life," Walker said.

Now 54, he lived there from age 7 to 16. He said although his first memory of the place was "I didn't want to be there," he said it quickly became a place for which he was profoundly grateful, thanks to the resident nuns' guiding influence, led by the late Sister Concetta Mazzanti, OSB.

"It was the first place I remember living where nobody was mean to me," he said, then adds with a laugh. "Well, at the time, I thought they were being mean to me because they made me do chores."

In his case, the Benedictines' influence was even more profound because unlike many youth at the facility who visited their families on weekends, Walker's home life was such that he seldom got that opportunity. He recalls many occasions where he was the lone youngster on premises.

"I spent so much time with the nuns that it created a very special relationship," he said. "The sisters out there were instrumental in instilling a work ethic that put me on the right path."

Walker, like many other former orphans, feel an obligation to give back to the place that was for many the only stable home and family they knew growing up. Reunions are still held and this year, several former residents came together to repair a stone grotto on the grounds and decorate it with Christmas lights. Walker said his goal serving on the board is to help reignite the facility in another, more lasting way.

"When I look at it, all I see is a place that has saved a lot of lives," Walker said. "Now, it is up to us to save it."

To reserve space for an event, inquire about leasing or to make a tax-deductible contribution to St. Joseph Center of Arkansas, visit www.sjcark.org, call (501) 993-4560 or e-mail .