In a classroom on the balcony of St. Ursula’s Hall, the majestic music conservatory on the former Benedictine University Springfield campus, several planks of the flooring are missing, the casualty of a leaky roof and years of neglect.
"This whole floor," Tony Libri explained, "had dropped six inches, so we’ve had to do all the substructure on that. It’s getting done. We just have to dry it out with a new roof, which is going on pretty soon."
In its heyday, plinking piano keys and operatic scales soared from the practice rooms and the great hall at 1500 N. Fifth St. Singers and groups from all over the world, including the von Trapp family singers, regularly plied the stage.
A stained-glass window on the conservatory’s west side shows an ensemble of heavenly musicians.
Libri wants to hear the walls sing again and that’s why he and his wife, Ann, signed a contract recently to purchase the entire 25-acre campus, near Lincoln Park, from the Lisle-based university.
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Libri was a mayoral candidate in 2003 and was a Sangamon County officeholder and chairman of the county’s Republican Party. Ann Libri started The Matthew Project, a nonprofit that works with homeless students from School District 186.
Tony Libri knows he has a daunting task in front of him.
"The music conservatory will be a conservatory once again," Libri said. "It’ll be open to the public, but our thrust will be to bring arts to the people who aren’t being served in our community. We’ll also use this is as a rental venue for banquets and wedding rehearsals and receptions. It’s perfect for small concerts and dinner theater."
Benedictine’s Springfield campus closed in 2018, citing “a long list of capital improvement needs" and low enrollment among its reasons. Much of the campus has sat dormant since that time, although some parts of the campus, had been unused for a decade prior.
The Libris’ focus has been Ursula Hall, the older part of Ursuline Academy, a chapel and living quarters formerly used by the Ursuline Sisters. The nuns founded, operated and partly staffed the high school and the former Springfield College in Illinois, which was fully subsumed by Benedictine University in 2009. Those are buildings under a 501(c)(3) called Preservation, Inc.
Since Libri entered the picture, the historic Brinkerhoff Home, the King’s Daughters Home and Angela Hall, the newer part of Ursuline Academy, have been sold off.
Two of the buyers were local. The Rev. Eric Hansen plans to move Destiny Church into Angela Hall, converting the gymnasium into the sanctuary. Gordon Fidler, the commercial property manager for Todd P. Smith Real Estate, is looking to find occupants for the Brinkerhoff Home’s second-floor offices, while renting out the downstairs for small events, such as wedding receptions, dinners and teas. A Pennsylvania outfit snapped up the King’s Daughters Home with the idea of making it a senior care facility
Dawson Hall/Weaver Hall, the main academic building and science wing respectively, and Becker Library are on the market. Because of the land parcels, they will have to be sold as one entity with an asking price of $600,000.
Benedictine officials allowed Libri to use the proceeds from the sale of the other buildings to help pay off a portion of the loan.
Libri declined to say how much he paid for the campus. Benedictine’s original asking price was $5 million in 2018, said Hansen, who was in talks with the university to buy the property at that time.
The Libris may have come into the sale picture late but there is a sentimental reason they did.
"(Ann) like me has fallen in love with these buildings," he said.
‘A historical vibe’
The first week after securing keys for the buildings, Libri and his crews spent their entire time running out animals.
"Possums, squirrels, raccoons, everything else," Libri said.
Beth Marx Mayfield, president of the Ursuline Academy Alumni Foundation, did a walkthrough of the older building some years after the school closed in 2007.
"Someone had been living in the library, it looked like because there was some garbage and a plate of food," Mayfield recalled. "There were raccoon droppings everywhere. It was a mess."
Still, Mayfield and foundation members are stoked about the Libris’ plans, which include creating a museum to honor Ursuline Academy and Springfield College in Illinois alumni.
Mayfield and others were caught off guard after Benedictine officials abruptly closed Ursuline in 2007.
"It’s not really letting Benedictine off the hook for the predicament they put the students in, my daughter (included)," Mayfield said. "It was very upsetting (seeing Ursuline close). To see a little bit of new life coming into those buildings, it’s wonderful.
"It’s what we’ve always wanted, but were never able to do, to save the buildings. What we hear of his vision is pretty much in line with what we would like to see done with the buildings. Save the chapel. Save the music hall. Make it accessible to people. I like the way he’s doing things so far."
That goes for neighbors Susan Martin and Shawn Arthur, too.
Martin, who lives in a three-story home in the 1500 block of North Fifth Street, said she is happy someone is doing something "worthwhile and positive" with the property.
"What I was afraid of," Martin said, "was that they were going to destroy the whole thing (in terms of tearing it down). I think there’s a lot of value in the historic element for that, if someone has the wherewithal to restore it to make it livable or usable.
"I don’t want it to sit empty."
Arthur, who is buying a home in the 1400 block of North Sixth Street, said he’s always had "a great reverence for big stain glass windows and steeples.
"I really want to see it go to good use. Obviously, sitting abandoned, there’s only so long they’re going to pay to keep it up. It seems such a waste to see it sit empty."
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Ward 5 Ald. LaKeisha Purchase was excited about Libri wanting to keep "that historical vibe" to the project. But, she cautioned, Libri is running a marathon, not a sprint.
"It’s going to take some time to fix some of these projects, but we have someone who is concrete and laying the foundation," Purchase said.
One of the things Purchase said was clear was that neighbors didn’t want to see it become another "Pillsbury project," a reference to a hulking operation further north that has now sat abandoned for 20 years.
"You have people break in and steal copper (and other things at Benedictine)," Purchase said. "The neighbors on Fifth and Sixth streets are watching out for the property now.
"They are very passionate and concerned about what was going in there. There are investments you have been living there the majority of your life there — 30, 40, 50 years, that your input does matter and we’re glad that (Libri) was open to what the neighbors had to say."
Bill Baskett, president of the Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association, said he’s made the analogy between Benedictine and Pillsbury several times.
"We’ve had that concern in the neighborhood," Baskett admitted. "The people I talk with are excited and we’ll see how it goes. I’ll remain positive until something shows me I can’t remain positive."
State Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, said she also excited about the prospects.
"When we pour development into any our neighborhoods," Turner said, "it makes it better for the entire city."
Working the deals
In a second-floor science lab in Angela Hall, the newer part of Ursuline Academy facing Sixth Street, Hansen, the church pastor, marveled at what Benedictine walked away from: like-new slate-top tables, laboratory hoods and other lab equipment.
"They left the sound system and all the equipment," Hansen said. "We have internet in every room pre-ran for us."
What was the attraction to Ursuline Academy?
"We want a forever home," Hansen said. "When you’ve been a renter the last four years, it’s nice to have a place you can call home.
"I love the campus feel. This neighborhood has an opportunity to go to the next level as this two, three-block area gets revitalized and people come here and there’s life and excitement. We want to minister to people all around us so we’re glad to be back in a neighborhood setting."
Hansen, who pastored iWorship Center before starting Destiny Church in 2017, said he initially approached Benedictine about buying the property. The two sides could never come to an agreement because the university insisted on selling the property as one package, he added.
"Tony finally said ‘I’ll be that guy who works all the deals,’" Hansen said. "That was fine by me because I got what I wanted out of it."
Standing in the gym, Hansen was insistent that it would be transformed into a church sanctuary by March 6, a date circled on his calendar for opening.
Hansen said he was keeping the natural wood ceiling. Carpet would cover the gym’s tile floor. A smaller preaching stage would be built out from the stage that hosted musicals and madrigal dinners.
"All the walls will be acoustically treated," he said. "New black drapes will go up. Fresh paint on everything. Lights. Sound system. The whole nine yards. It will look theater-esque when it’s all said and done.
"It’s a yeoman’s task, but we’re getting it done."
Brinkerhoff Home, an Italianate mansion dubbed "The Castle" and home to George Brinkerhoff, a friend and political ally of Abraham Lincoln, is Fidler’s first foray into commercial property of his own.
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The attraction to the home, said Fidler, a retired Illinois State Police captain, doesn’t need a lot of explanation.
"When you look at the quality of the woodwork and the condition of the house, it’s phenomenal," Fidler said. "I grew up doing woodworking, so I really like natural woods. That stuff is attractive to me."
The home does need some attention, Fidler said, but they are mostly cosmetic repairs.
Fidler doesn’t want to make it a museum piece. Like Benedictine and SCI, which had administrative offices in the home, Fidler sees the home as a place that needs to be used.
"It’s kind of like a car. You don’t want a car to sit around because it deteriorates," Fidler said.
‘A majestic place’
Looking out a first-story office in the older part of Ursuline Academy, Libri pointed to a building that once was part of the school’s boiler system. It sits off "the breezeway" which connected the high school’s two buildings.
"I told (Ann), ‘This looks like a bombed-out World War II French bistro,’ and she said, ‘Let’s turn it into one,’" Libri recounted, with a laugh. "So that’s what we’re going to do."
Libri, 65, who is also a retired Illinois National Guard colonel, said he and his wife were "fully aware of what we were getting into" with the north end project.
While some of the buildings may have sold quickly, Dawson Hall and Becker Library are much bigger. There has been some interest, though, even from parties out of the country.
"We will sell them," Libri said. "If they don’t sell, we have to come up with the cash (to purchase them) and we’re prepared to do so.
"Not many people have the financial wherewithal to undergo such a task and I certainly don’t have the financial wherewithal to complete the task. That’s why we’re converting it over to a 501 (3)(c). Because the buildings will require so much fundraising to be able to be completed, that’s the only way we could do it, as a nontaxable entity. That makes us qualified for grants, which we’ve never done before."
Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder said he also appreciates Libri’s efforts on the project.
Langfelder said several of his siblings attended Ursuline Academy and SCI. His mother, Mary Agnes "Midge" (Dunham) Langfelder went to Ursuline and had a cautionary tale for her son about Ursula Hall.
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"When we were ready to take down the YMCA (at Fourth and Cook)," Langfelder recalled, "I was driving by with my mom after lunch and she asked, ‘There’s no way you can save the YMCA?’ I said, ‘No, mom, there’s no way I can save it.’ She said, ‘You better save Ursula Hall.’ I said, ‘Ursula Hall? I’ve never been in it.’
"Of course, we took a trip over there. It’s just a majestic place and it’ll be a great project and an expensive one to salvage it, but he’s up to the task. It will be a community project.
"The important thing is how do you move forward as an integrated group and I think that’s what he’s being conscientious about, moving that direction, so it’s a great amenity to Springfield and the area around it."
Libri said he would love to jump to the finish. He would love to hear music bounce off the walls tomorrow.
For now, he has flooring and compliance issues to handle.
"Musicians are contacting us because they’ve heard we’re restoring the building and they tell us this is the most perfectly acoustically tuned room in central Illinois," Libri said. "They can’t wait to play here."
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
via The State Journal-Register
December 3, 2021 at 07:26PM
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