ROCHESTER — The Sisters of St. Francis hoped to see Assisi Heights as a welcoming place. People can drive onto the peaceful campus, attend mass services and notice the details of the convent buildings in northwest Rochester.
Assisi Heights Spirituality Center program coordinator Sister Marlys Jax said the architectural aspects like the statues of St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi can become hidden in plain view.
“We kind of miss (the statues) because if you’re really looking for them you find them but if you don’t know they’re there and you don’t look up you don’t notice them,” Jax said while speaking to a recent architecture tour group of about 15 people. “Those are all little architectural features that are around the building and, I dare say, sometimes sisters don’t even know they’re there because we’re so used to coming in and out.” While looking up to the hills over the city, the tiled roofs and stone buildings raise curiosities about the buildings’ function.
The "wow" factor, as local author and architectural historian Ken Allsen described, comes with the Italian and Romanesque style. The style is modeled after the Umbria region of Italy, which includes the city of Assisi where St. Francis was born.
Allsen said the exterior stone, which exudes an “air of age,” was cut in six different shapes and three different colors. Allsen studied the building’s original drawings over seven years researching the history of Assisi Heights, Mayo Clinic Hospital-Saint Marys, the College of St. Teresa and the original motherhouse.
Assisi Heights, at 1001 14th St. NW, was under construction from 1952 to 1955. Mother Mary Alfred, with the sisters as nurses, encouraged Dr.
William Mayo to open Saint Marys. ADVERTISEMENT Though the peak of the sisters in the 1950s included around 1,000 sisters, Assisi Heights was built for 376 occupants. The sisters also lived at Saint Marys and the College of St.
Teresa. “This building is almost deceptive in its appearance ..
. you see the round arches and a lot of the detail around the windows but if you go completely around the building you’ll soon leave all this trim. This is the front yard, this is the public face of the convent,” Allsen described of the chapel and hospitality areas.
“As you travel around, it’s still beautiful same rock, stone but it becomes much more functional as you go around, no more stained glass or very little of it, you find different approaches to the whole thing.” The chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes stands as one of the most decorated areas, including stained glass windows, marble pillars and a mosaic image of Mary outside. The exterior of the chapel is under construction to add an accessible entrance.
There are public mass services at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Jax said the stained glass windows marked the “beginning of a new era” in window design, which did not include depictions of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The windows instead depict flowers blossoming throughout the chapel. Another series of mosaics highlight the journey of Jesus Christ to the cross.
“Then there’s two rondel windows ...
(one) is symbols of Mary. It has a lily in the center but if you look real close ..
. is a pair of crutches because it’s the connection to Saint Marys Hospital and Our Lady of the Lourdes because people used to pray at Lourdes to be healed of whatever ailment they had and lots of time people were healed while they were there and they left their crutches there,” Jax said. There’s one part, or “pain,” Jax sees in the chapel: the marble sanctuary pillars aren’t symmetrical in color.
She surmises the pillars were placed before the differing colors were noticed. The convent’s marble comes from 13 countries, such as Italy, Spain, Belgium, Sweden and the United States. The sanctuary has also had several projects, including moving the altar forward and removing the organ pipes.
In the patio, the convent’s “key feature” of the round arches continues between pillars decorated with cherubs, Allsen and Jax said. The cherubs’ wings alternate between up and down without a mistake in the pattern, a note Jax learned when she counted the pillars. The patio’s limestone walls also include quotes from St.
Francis, such as “I am a herald of the great king.” “They have a little symbol in it of the ..
. three interlocking triangles, which for us represent the three vows as well as the Trinity,” Jax said of the marble pillars with a basket style near the main entrance. “So there are religious symbols that are incorporated in the architecture that are cast in stone.
” ADVERTISEMENT As people drive off the campus and leave the serenity of the convent in the hills, they are welcomed with the growth of Mayo Clinic since the sisters' partnership in opening the first hospital. “I’m familiar with all the grand buildings, if you will, of Rochester and this was the last one that I got access to,” Allsen said of his interest in Assisi Heights. “Plus, I became friends with so many sisters and I really respect them, I’m not a Catholic but I respect what they do for social issues.
” Assisi Heights is hosting the architecture tour on July 27, a historical artifact crawl on Aug. 3 and a Wilson house tour on Aug. 10.
For more events and registration information, visit rochesterfranciscan.org/events..
