Catherine Goulet
Philadelphia Historic Preservation Corporation
Inspired May-June 1989

The Value of Landmarks: Saint Mary's

PRESRVING DIGNITY IN CINCINNATI

Respect for tradition. Integrity of heritage. Dignity for the individual. These are more than just noble principles--they characterize a way of life at Old St. Mary's Roman Catholic parish in Cincinnati, where the congregation has respect for the history of its community and traditions of its church, the oldest existing house of worship in the city. Its historic neighborhood stands remarkably intact, serving as a testimony to the hard work and past successes of its founding German community. And the church and the people of the community retain their dignity, despite the impoverished conditions of their neighborhood.

At first it would seem as though the church building and the people of the surrounding community have been abandoned by society. St. Mary's was constructed in the mid-1800s for a faith community of thousands. Today, it serves only a few hundred members, and most of them are commuters, traveling from miles outside the city for weekend services. Economically, the worshippers could not be any more different from the local residents, primarily black and Appalachian, who comprise one of the poorest communities in the city. Yet St. Mary's Church is raising money to repair its historic church building; it is committing itself to staying in the neighborhood. Moreover, with the creation of the Mary Magdalen House in 1988, the church has responded to a great need for services to the homeless in the community.

Indeed, the House has been instrumental creating a bond between the small congregation and the surroundings neighborhood.  The Mary Magdalen House (MMH) is a personal care facility--a place where the poor and homeless can go to use the toilet or shower, get a shave, make a phone call, have their clothes cleaned or receive new clothes, be referred to shelters or counseling services, recieve mail and store their belongings. The notion of providing some of these very basic services seems like an obvious one, yet Mrs. Mary A. Heller, one of the House's founders, discovered differently.  "The interesting thing about this project," said Heller. "is that after we decided to do this, I did some research, and I could not find another place in the country that had the same mission that we did for our facility." To this day, no comparable facilities are known to exist, making it all the more fascinating to understand how this project came to fruition.

Not surprisingly, the story starts with parish members who were concerned about their greatest stake in the community--the church building itself. St. Mary's stands as a testament to an older style of worship. The church holds masses in Latin and German in addition to one in English each Sunday, and the building's interior has not changed since the turn of the century. At a time when many Catholic churches have lost altars, statues and decorative schemes that had made them visually interesting, said The Rev. Dohrman Byers, St. Mary's has "kept all this and has a Latin Mass, to boot." The continuation of these traditions of worship is very important to the congregation, and the preservation of the building is a part of that tradition.

So when these dedicated parishioners planned a $1.7 million fund raising campaign for the replacement of the roof, restoration of the tower and other repair work on their building, the archbishop challenged the parish to create a significant program to help the surrounding community. But what could St. Mary's do?

"The Mary Magdalen House came into being because we saw individuals having to use a park, a parking lot, a door stoop or a driveway as a toilet," reads the brochure about the facility. "People came to the door of St. Mary's Church wanting to look for any kind of job but couldn't because they were dirty, unshaven and had no clean clothes. In addition, they had no access to a phone to make an appointment nor a mailing address to use for correspondence." To meet these needs, MMH was founded.

The church found a building on Main Street, whose property was adjacent to the garden behind the church, and purchased it in 1985. The four-story Italianate-style building had two storefronts on the ground floor and occupied apartments on the upper floors. One side had a meat market at the time, and a portion of the building had suffered from rotted woodwork. After taking a year to negotiate and find funding for the project, the parish ran into problems with the archdiocese, which did not want to be responsible for the liability risks of such a project. Nearly another year went by before the Mary Magdalen Foundation, a private non-profit corporation, was chartered to undertake the project for St. Mary's.

"Most of the original money (for MMH) came from one donor," said Byers. He had been successful in the cleaning business, and he liked the idea of "cleaning" people. He also provided the name for the facility, which refers to Mary Magdalen who washed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair. In addition, about $100,000 of the parish's own fund raising was set aside for the MMH. Ultimately, the purchase price, renovation and start-up costs for the facility were about half a million dollars.

As the planning and work on MMH progressed, what started out as a simple, practical function began to take on a more spiritual character. "We started out just to clean people up," said Byers. "Then the philosophy changed to offefing people a chance to regain some personal dignity." The founders began to see that this was a great opportunity to offer privacy to those individuals who have no private space for themselves on the streets. It was a chance to allow people who had been ignored by society an opportunity to be treated with respect and kindness and begin to increase their selfesteem, also.

The men and women who use the facility are called guests in order to "pay some respect to the people who use the place," said Heller. She likes to say that MMH is like a private club. When someone enters the House, they are greeted and asked to sign in. No nosy questions are asked, as they are at many social service organizations. "We don't want to go through a screening process even though that information may be helpful to us," said Heller. The only record kept is of the type of service the person requests. If there is a line for the shower, the person's name is taken and called when there is space available. Another quality which is emphasized at MMH is personal contact, said Byers. "You notice very few signs on the walls," he explained." Everything guests need to know, such as the fact that there are 10-minute timers on the shower heads, is told to them "personally by a human being."

"They appreciate the privacy and courtesy," said Heller. "And they do gain a sense of self-respect." Byers agrees. You can have food in your stomach and a place to sleep and still not feel good about yourself, he explained. But after a shower and shave and with clean clothes on your back "it's impossible to not feel good about yourself."

In renovating the building, too, first quality materials were always used. The bathroom has new floor and wall tiles in an attractive pattern, stainless steel fixtures, and the reception area has hardwood floors. All materials are the type that you would expect to find in an executive washroom, said Heller. "And that was the message we want to communicate to people: 'You deserve nice things, too."' "We didn't know when we opened the facility how many people would come or how long it would take them before they'd want to come in," said Heller.

But since opening on March 25, 1988, the number of people served has been astounding. In the first few weeks of operation, MMH was serving up to 80 guests each day (95% of them are men), adding up to more than 10,000 people served in nine months of operation last year. That total number is expected to double this year as the House expanded its hours of operation in March and now opens on the weekends.

 With a budget of more than $100,000, the House has one manager for the weekdays, one for the weekends and several assistant managers. The rest of the staff is volunteer. In addition to volunteer help, donations are received from individuals as well as foundations and the City of Cincinti. The Mary Magdalen Foundation so hopes to start raising money for an endowment. More common, however, are donations of clothing, soap, detergent, towels, razors and other personal care items, which are received regularly. Even some larger items have been donated such as washers and dryers from St. John's Universalist Church and employees of the telephone company.

Although MMH does not provide food, money or other emergency services, they do refer people to nearby agencies. MMH is located in a neighborhood which Byers describes as a "virtual shopping center of social services in late- 19th century commercial storefronts." Several years ago, for example, St. Mary's offered use of its former school building to St. John's Social Service center which now provides emergency food, clothing, furniture, shelter and counseling to families. It also has a thrift store which is located next door to MMH.

How have the concerns of the church balanced with the concerns of the MMH? "I can't say that we've done very well in connecting the two," said Byers. The conservative congregation has been a reluctant participant in some of MMH's activites. However, Byers noted that volunteer workers from the congregation have gradually been exposed to the good work of the House, and that favorable response makes them proud.

Meanwhile, the church building itself is in the process of being repaired. The roof, which had been the immediate concern, was replaced last year, but the tower needs stabilization and the wood floor has deteriorated. A new heating system will also have to be installed at the same time. The church has already raised ten percent of the needed funds from parishioners, but an outside fund raising campaign will need to be conducted "We would love to restore it," said Heller of the church interior, "but the cost is just too prohibitive. We won't change anything, though," she quickly added.

Perhaps the church won't change, but MMH will continue to grow. The apartments above the facility are still occupied, and will probably be renovated this summer. The project has been honored by local organizations and has been recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Midwest regional Office as an outstanding and creative program of preservation and service to the community. This publicity will certainly lead to the creation of similar facilities in cities across the country.

The greatest joys of the volunteers and founders of MMH, however, will always be the personal success stories of the guests who used the facility--like the former guest who is now the weekend manager of MMH; the guest who visited the House before his job interview and was hired; the guest who visited his mother for the first time in three years after showering and getting new clothes at MMH; and the men and women who walk out of the House each day with higher heads and quicker steps, past the 147-year-old church building whose tower, too, stands straight and tall and a proud.

The address for the Mary Magdalen House is 1221-1223 Main Street, Cincinnati, OH 45210 or call (513) 721-2988.

The Mary Magdalen House is located in a neighborhood containing a" virtual shopping mail of social services in late,19th century storefronts." The logo for the foundation is at the top of the page; the House's waiting room with its hardwood floors and psuedo pressed metal is pictured at left.