CATONSVILLE – The Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate officially began the final phase of their 21-year-old renovation plan for St. Joseph’s Nursing Home in Catonsville June 14 when the walls of the facility’s oldest wing came tumbling down.
While extensive renovations – including updating and expanding resident rooms, installing new bathrooms, improving storm water drainage in the courtyard and adding a new entryway and portico – have been done to other parts of the facility over the years, it was decided that rather than renovate the original wing, it was best to rebuild it, as new regulations were put in place after the pandemic.
“The rooms were very small with no bathrooms, no showers. The AC and plumbing were old,” said Sister Krystyna Mroczek, a member of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate who serves as St. Joseph’s administrator.
“The new plan took about two years,” she added, walking to the end of a hallway and stopping in front of a thick, giant tarp covering the gaping hole to the now-gone wing.
Expected to be completed in 18 months, the new wing will offer seven rooms, a sitting room, a beauty salon, a nursing station and wider hallways.
“We always try to enhance the residents’ comfort,” Sister Krystyna said. The facility, she said, typically receives high rankings, and there is a waiting list.
NorthPoint LLC’s architectural services, based in Taylors Island on the Eastern Shore, has designed all of the renovation projects since 2004. In a letter shared in St. Joseph’s summer newsletter, Mark North, principal of NorthPoint, wrote that the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate are all “truly inspirational, which reflects in their loving care of their residents.” His firm, he added, was “committed, through continued enhancements, to further enrich the lives and comfort of the St. Joseph’s Nursing Home’s residents.”
Though she would not disclose the cost of the projects, Sister Krystyna noted that donations, fundraisers, savings and support from the sisters were covering the expenses “piece by piece.”
When St. Joseph’s Nursing Home opened on Tugwell Drive in 1959, the sisters welcomed 40 residents to the facility, which featured two wings and a day room. In 2004, a new wing was added, allowing the center to welcome 44 residents. The five-acre property is also home to Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate’s motherhouse.
“Thank God we still have sisters,” Sister Krystyna said, adding that 10 sisters work in the nursing home in various positions. Conventual Franciscan friars from the Shrine of St. Anthony in Ellicott City celebrate Mass in the facility’s chapel, which was renovated in 2010.
“We’ve had weddings, even baptisms,” Sister Krystyn said, noting that while the nursing home is Catholic-based, all faiths are welcome.
Along with the new addition, Phase 4 of the plan includes the renovation of the sisters’ dining room as well as improvements to the lower level’s garden room and storage.
The Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate were founded in Poland in the 19th century. The first members to minister in the United States began working with the sick and elderly in Baltimore in 1934. Polish Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski established the American Province of the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate, headquartered in Catonsville, in 1952.
Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org
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