The grandeur that for 80 years was Holy Rosary Institute has collapsed into the interior of the three-story, 30,000-square-foot building, a ramshackle result for a century-old educational institution linked to one Catholic saint and possibly a second.
But Corey Jack, executive director of the facility at 421 Carmel Ave., and the organization that would save it, and Dustin Cravins, president of the Holy Rosary Redevelopment Board, foresee visible changes and defined plans for potential second life at the imperiled historic site, a revered school for Black students.
Two developments for halting the building’s decay and reviving its vitality appear near at hand. One is a revised plan for the 40-acre property to include developing facilities for public functions; the other is an effort to stabilize what remains of the old school itself, constructed in 1913-14, by means of a protective structure tall enough to hover over the three-story building.
“We are setting a date for internal discussions of the plans,” Jack said. “We also intend to have some serious conversations with business leaders and with a cross-section of the community.”
Those conversations, as new plans meet approval, will include charrettes, intense discussions with public input about how the Holy Rosary property should be used. Those talks, which may start this month, will eventually shape the vision for the property and serve as prelude to a public campaign for funding.
“More of us are saying let’s get our business in order before we make the ‘ask,’” Jack said; the firm plan would go a long way toward getting the business in order.
Plans for the site will center around what would draw people to it: perhaps a wedding chapel, room for public meetings and events, an African-American museum, healthcare possibilities. The proposed new plan follows study by a graduate school team from the architecture department at the University of h at Lafayette. That team has been reviewing a plan drawn up by a team from the University of Notre Dame a decade ago.
A final master plan must be consistent with the mission of the facility. It must involve economic possibilities, social events, education, health and spiritual objectives, Jack and Cravins said.
Jack was hired almost two years ago on a three-year contract with assistance provided by the Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority. He ran headlong into COVID-19 and its restrictions, which slowed progress in developing plans and generating funds.
Still, the board has more than $4 million from the state to start their efforts, perhaps one-third of which may be used to stabilize the main school building itself. It also gained a $450,000 grant from the National Park Service. It has money to stabilize the building.
What’s at risk at Holy Rosary is obvious: The property has long been listed as among the state’s most endangered historic buildings. In 1980, when Holy Rosary applied for the National Register of Historic Places, the condition of the main building was reported as good. By 1993, the campus was shuttered.
A recently revealed drone video of the building’s interior was breathtaking for the level of deterioration within the proud institution, long exposed to merciless elements. Architect Kirby Pecot of Lafayette, who has retained an interest in saving the building since he first noted its deterioration by passing by it in 2005, said the roof collapsed, causing collapse of the third floor, once the site of dormitories; into the second floor, formerly the site of classrooms and sewing rooms; and onto the first floor, where restroom and showers, kitchen, storage and other facilities were located.
“Everybody saw it,” Cravins said of the drone video footage. “When you see it, it is shocking.”
Pecot said the structural engineer for the project said the first thing to accomplish is erecting the protective cover. He has designed a metal structure with a roof to protect the building from rain. Then the team will stabilize exterior walls.
“The next phase, we demolish the interior of the building and reconstruct,” Pecot said.
The protective metal covering must be ordered and fabricated — a pre-engineering metal building without walls — and its timeframe for its use is some 10-12 weeks. By the end of 2022, the frame will be erected, a red-steel, metal frame with a metal roof, which will make “an odd-looking sight” to passersby.
Holy Rosary’s importance is based on many factors. The school originated as an industrial training institution located in Galveston, Texas, but declined in enrollment and support after a deadly hurricane in that city.
It moved to Lafayette in 1913 upon the urging of the Rev. Philip Keller, a Bavarian-born priest who saw the need in Lafayette for a high school for Black girls. At the time it relocated there were only a handful of high schools in h for Black students.
It remained an industrial school until it developed into a secondary school for Black girls in the 1920s, with diplomas granted to graduates. For about 50 years, it welcomed boarding students and developed a reputation for academic excellence under the leadership of the Sisters of Holy Family from New Orleans and priests from the Divine Word Missionaries.
Mother Katharine Drexel, now St. Katharine Drexel, who supported the establishment of schools for Native American and Black children, donated $10,500 to the school to help it get started, according to a doctoral dissertation by Don Hernandez at LSU. The Sisters of the Holy Family was an order founded by Venerable Henriette Delille of New Orleans. Veneration is a step on the path to sainthood.
Enrollment peaked at about 470 in the 1960s, Hernandez wrote; the boarding program ended in the 1970s.