St. Frances Academy buys 7 vacant houses from city

ROBBIE WHELAN

Daily Record Business Writer

January 9, 2008 6:45 PM

St. Frances Academy, a 180-year-old Catholic school in East Baltimore, Wednesday finalized plans to purchase seven rowhouses from the city, for a total of $7,000. School officials plan to redevelop the houses, which have been vacant for at least 12 years, in an effort to provide safe, quality housing for their students and revitalize the neighborhood.

Located near the school along the 1000 block of Brentwood Avenue, the rowhomes are considered an eyesore in what is already an undesirable area because of its close proximity to the Baltimore City Detention Center on Eager Street.

“We don’t exactly have people banging down our doors [to purchase] them, or even any other people looking at [these rowhouses],” said Paul Graziano, Baltimore’s housing commissioner, testifying at a committee meeting of the Board of Estimates.

St. Frances’ efforts, he added, will “eliminate blight and help low-income African-American children in the inner city.”

The school was founded in the early 1800s by the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the nation’s first black religious order, to teach the children of slaves how to read. St. Frances continues to observe a mission of teaching disadvantaged children, with 70 percent of its 310 high school students eligible for free or reduced-cost lunch plans.

Over the past decade, St. Frances has attracted the attention and funds of several local charitable foundations, including the Abell Foundation and the France-Merrick Foundation. Its endowment rose from zero to $4.2 million over the course of about 12 years, and in 2002 it completed construction of a community center valued at $5.4 million, financed by $1.2 million in state bonds and several large donations by both individuals and foundations.

The city sold the houses for $1,000 apiece, despite asking an original sale price of $65,900 for all seven. This original price was established as part of a land disposition agreement approved by the Board of Estimates on July 11, 2007.

When asked by members of the Board of Estimates how much money the city was potentially losing on the sale, Graziano replied, “We prefer to think of this as an investment.”

Tom Nealis, development director for the St. Frances Academy, said the city invested well in the school, which he called an important neighborhood institution that serves a particularly vulnerable portion of society.

“Of course, the circumstances have changed,” he said. “Back in the early 1800s it was slavery. Today it’s … drugs and the deterioration of the inner-city family. … On any given day we have at least 10 students who would be better off living somewhere other than where they are living.”

Nealis said the Abell Foundation has expressed interest in financing the renovation project, which would provide housing for some of the students who attend the school, and help fulfill the vision of a comprehensive master plan for the area, which includes better homes, an expanded school building and an increased endowment for the school.

“I’ve been here for 12 years, and we used to have a neighborhood here, but there’s not much of a neighborhood anymore,” he said. “We lobbied to have a nearby playground improved; it had a basketball hoop with no backboard, swing sets with no swings … but by the time that playground was improved, all the houses were torn down. There were no kids to play there.

“We are the strength of the neighborhood now. If we’re able to get some housing for our students and some improved housing for the people of the area … then that would be good for the city as a whole.”

Officials from the Abell Foundation did not return phone calls.