Expansion

Over time, the convent was expanded in 1920, 1925, 1938, 1941 and 1953. All of the additions were designed by the firm of E. Brielmaier & Sons, and it is believed that they designed the original building as well. The Brielmaier firm is best known in Milwaukee for designing the St. Josaphat Basilica and Calvary Cemetery Chapel. The high-profile firm specialized in work for the Catholic Church and received commissions nationwide. In early city directories, the convent was referred to as St. Mary’s Home for Old Ladies. It was later renamed St. Mary’s Home for Aged Ladies, and finally came to be known as St. Mary’s Nursing Home. The first male patients were not admitted to St. Mary’s until 1979.

St. Mary’s also played a significant role in the long tradition of women’s Catholic education in Milwaukee, establishing a convent high school by relocating their St. Nazianz school to the city in 1926.

It began accepting lay students in 1948 in preparation for the opening of a new high school at 100th Street and Capitol Drive called Divine Savior High School. Divine Savior later merged with Holy Angels Academy (est. 1892) to form Divine Savior Holy Angels High School in 1970.

Many of the city’s other important institutions, from Mercy High School to Alverno College, had their origins with the various orders of religious women who had established convents in different neighborhoods throughout Milwaukee.

Young women were given training beyond what was available in the public school system, and there was a strong emphasis on academic achievement and the arts. By the late 1990s, however, most of the nuns had moved to other facilities, and in 1999 Faith Works, a faith-based program for recovering male addicts, opened in the original (1900) part of the convent building. Historic photos courtesy of the archives of the Sisters of the Divine Savior, North American Province.