Plan to expand facilities at St. Joseph Church in Conway

$10 million capital campaign to benefit parish, school youth with more meeting space

Published: August 19, 2016

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

An architect’s rendering shows the planned multi-purpose building for St. Joseph Church in Conway. It will include more classrooms for religious education, a 600-seat auditorium and a double kitchen.

CONWAY — As students and youth at St. Joseph School and Church in Conway continue to grow and mature these next couple of years, so will the buildings around them.

More than a decade in the making, St. Joseph parish leaders have developed a master plan to revamp its campus to accommodate future growth and needs that will involve phase one of demolishing three existing buildings and replacing them with a two-story, multipurpose building with a covered walkway leading directly into the east side of the church. The Growing Our Faith Capital Campaign aims to raise $10 million for the various improvement projects. So far, $5.5 million has been raised, with $6 million total needed to break ground, said St. Joseph business manager Matt Mallett. The church hopes to start construction in January 2017 and have this first phase of the project completed in 16 to 18 months.

Mallett said solidifying a 25-year master plan presented last fall has been set back throughout the years because of pastor changes and the departure of the Holy Ghost Fathers, which founded St. Joseph as a mission church in 1879 and relinquished guidance of the church in 2010 to the Diocese of Little Rock. The diocese requires all churches to have a master plan. Mallett said the challenges have ultimately worked out to be positive.

“It was probably a blessing in disguise. God’s always got our back, he’s protected us. Some of the plans we had might have been good for the moment, but may not have been the best thing for us long term,” he said.

Creating more space

The 41,873-square-foot multipurpose building will replace the parish administration office, the parish hall and Spiritan Hall, adding 6,290 square feet of building space. Taking down buildings will also provide more church and cemetery parking.

The covered walkway/drop-off area will lead out of the baptistery in the church, preserving the original chapel.

According to a site plan provided to St. Joseph parishioners, the building will include administrative offices, about eight to 10 classrooms upstairs, bridal suite and an auditorium with a stage that can seat about 600 people versus the roughly 100 people that Spiritan Hall currently seats. Joanna Nabholz, parishioner and lead architect with H+N Architects, said the building will also include a shop and a place for displaying the history of St. Joseph. Currently, parishioners can buy items like Catholic statues and rosaries, but by appointment only.

“The new space will make it a little more visible so parishioners know we have the option. We’re hoping one day there might be someone there instead of just by appointment only,” she said. “We have a lot of historical photos and artifacts that have been collected over the years and it’s been sitting in storage. We want to somehow display that in the small lobby area.”

While the building is for the entire church community, the school and youth in the parish will benefit in specific ways, including a double kitchen in the new building. The current school cafeteria is located in the parish hall.

“One challenge we face right now when we have funerals during the school year, our kids are often asked to brownbag it for the day and eat in the hallway and classrooms,” Mallett said. “This building is designed that we can serve this new hall area in two kitchen points,” allowing a funeral lunch and school lunch or two school lunches to occur simultaneously in separate areas.

Faith formation students, who are currently taught in various buildings on campus, will be able to go straight from the church to the multipurpose building using the walkway, Mallett said.

All together again

One long-term goal is to move the elementary school back to the west side of Harkrider Street. The high school and middle school buildings are on the church campus, but elementary students are across what can often be a busy Harkrider Street.

“The long-term goal to get all the kids on one campus, utilize just one cafeteria,” in the multipurpose building and “not having to bus kids back and forth to church,” Nabholz said.

Elementary school principal Matthew Tucker said in addition to logistics, having the school closer to the church will give priests the opportunity to hopefully stop by more and give religion teachers more freedom to bring their students to adoration.

“Right now that’s not really an option for us,” Tucker said with bussing students. “That to me is just a huge piece for getting us across there.”

The estimated cost for the multipurpose building, walkway and demolishing the three other buildings is $6,585,000. The remaining campaign money will go toward landscaping, a new prayer plaza and expanding the parking lot, which will add at least 100 spaces; new restrooms on the east side of the chapel; hazardous material removal from the old buildings; plus fees, furniture, equipment and a maintenance fund.

While the long-term plan is for the whole St. Joseph community, Tucker said the benefits for young people in the parish are exciting.

“I can only imagine in terms of faith formation what they’ll be able to do having some good designated space,” he said.

Click for the Catholic Schools Herald, August 2016 index