What makes a building historic? Who makes the decision of what is or is not a milestone? How far must a network go to maintain and protect its monuments, and does the owner of an asset have the final say? Can progress and preservation take place simultaneously?
These new issues, however, have taken on new importance as Rochester finally faces a resolution and deadline regarding the fate of the former Lourdes High School on West Center Street.
An abbreviated chronology of Lourdes is simple. The original construction opened in 1941, with additions in 1958 and into the 1980s. The last elegance of the construction seniors graduated in the spring of 2013, and this fall, Lourdes High School moved into a new $34 million facility on Northwest 19th Street. That year, the Mayo Clinic purchased the former Lourdes building and some adjacent land for $8. 9 million.
Not much has happened at this site in the last decade. What was once the focal point and center of activity in one of Rochester’s oldest neighborhoods is now an empty and deteriorating shell. When continually asked to reveal their long-term plans for the site, Mayo Clinic executives remained largely silent.
No more.
With May’s announcement of its “Bold. Before. Unlinked” investment. In Rochester, we now know that the old site in Lourdes is intended for a logistics site. While we’re not entirely sure what that means, it doesn’t sound like anything. create by repurposing an old, neglected, and leaky school building. Most, if not all, of the old Lourdes design will likely have to be demolished to comply with the May plan.
Thus, we re-enter a delicate debate about the inherent price of replaced buildings that some say have an intrinsic old price tag and are worthy of being preserved from demolition. The Rochester Heritage Preservation Commission is lately reading the Lourdes site and is expected to submit an opinion to the City Council this month.
To its credit, the Mayo Clinic does and says all the right things. Has not yet applied for a demolition permit (thus giving the Preservation Commission time to do its job), and Mayo has argued that upcoming additions to the school do not justify any designation as a historic landmark, the clinic has expressed its desire to add forces with the Heritage Commission to advance projects at the ancient site of Lourdes.
In short, Mayo respects the process.
But does this procedure deserve to cause any obstacles to the May plan?There are some who think so. On this same page, in fact, a former judge on Kevin A. Lund argues that the Mayo Clinic deserves instead the construction of a network center where troubled and/or homeless youth can find shelter, education and hope for a better life. . life of the elderly.
We probably wouldn’t summarize Lund’s argument any further, as you’d have to read it yourself. Homeless youth are indeed a developing challenge in Rochester, and as a former judge, Lund is well aware of the negative consequences it entails for Americans and our community. He’s a man on a mission, and it’s a noble mission.
But here’s the hard truth: Mayo Clinic already has a mission – and it’s not to repurpose old buildings into community centers.
Mayo Clinic is committed to cutting-edge medical research. Invest in world-class medical talent. It trains doctors and nurses for the long term.
The main goal of the clinic is to provide the most productive medical care in the world, and it cannot yet achieve this purpose through status. Growth is needed, and if the old Lourdes High School is to be demolished as Mayo looks to the future, then that is what will happen.
But that does not mean that the legacy of the best school in Lourdes is going to die. Actually, not much less.
Rochester’s Catholic schools are thriving lately, and the story of Lourdes High School isn’t over. It is rewritten and expanded through its graduates, who continue to leave their footprints in Rochester, across the country, and around the world.
Although the new construction of Lourdes High School has preserved and incorporated some artifacts from the old construction, we, church officials, school administrators, and several generations of graduates, would agree that Lourdes is not a collection of stained glass windows, arches, stones, and statues. Nor is it a field.
To borrow (and repurpose) a keyword from one of the Marvel movies, Lourdes High School is a place. This has never been the case.
It’s a people.
We do not hear a loud chorus of Lourdes graduates calling for the building’s preservation. Quite the opposite, in fact. The consensus seems to be that it’s time for the city to move on – as the Catholic Church and its school system already have.
May, with the help and guidance of the church, could salvage a small portion of the existing design and layout of its new facilities. The site could provide tangible popularity of what has been there for about eight decades.
But such popularity is not crucial, because generations of scholars have already “preserved” Lourdes High School in their memory, their intellect, and in the relationships they have forged there during their lives.