Fading into history

St. Mary's Convent comes down

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Parishioners, neighbors and passers-by stopped Friday afternoon, some with cameras and camcorders in hand, to see what was going on and catch a last glimpse of the old St. Mary's Convent on Minnesota Street, as a demolition crew tore into the 81-year old convent.

It marked the start of the complete demolition of both the convent and the adjacent St. Mary's School.

A decision made by St. Mary's Parish, which owns the buildings, sealed the convent's fate after the parish repeatedly tried to find new tenants.

The convent was built around the same time as the St. Mary's School. Together, St. Mary's, St. George's, St. John's in Searles and Holy Trinity served as the area's Catholic schools until 1999, when St. Anthony Elementary opened next to Holy Trinity.

The convent housed nuns belonging to the Order of the Sisters of Christian Charity until the early 1980's, when the nuns returned to Illinois. The convent was the home of Educare, a daycare program of New Ulm Area Catholic Schools, until 2000, when the convent was closed.

Demolition began at 1:30 p.m. with the removal of a cross that sat atop the building. The crew finished the demolition by 5 p.m.

The crew removed some of the trim from the convent's facade and then took down the capstone from the front door. They chiseled the cement away from the convent's namestone, slowly took it off the building and brought it down onto a flatbed trailer.

The noise of the bucket on the backhoe, the shattering of the window panes and the crashing bricks were loud enough to hear throughout the neighborhood. The work attracted the attention of several passing motorists and a few of the people who live across the street from the convent.

A small line of spectators were sheltered from the drizzle underneath the awning of The Thimble Box. Many of them just stood quietly and watched. A couple of the sightseers snapped pictures. Fr. Douglas Grams, who is pastor of St. Mary's Parish, recorded parts of the demolition on videotape.

"I was just amazed at how smoothly it went and how easily the bricks went down," he said, adding that several of the people who stopped at the corner shared stories and memories of St. Mary's.