Sisters of Mercy reach $1 million goal after 5 years of planning family center Facility will be built in Southwest Baltimore

The Sisters of Mercy are breathing easier.

After five years of persuading and praying, the sisters announced they have raised enough money -- $1 million -- to replace an abandoned funeral home with a center for poor families in Southwest Baltimore.

"I had my doubts that this day would ever come," said Sister Margaret Downing, executive director of the House of Mercy, which serves the Poppleton neighborhood. "But people had faith in what we're doing together here. So many people gave, and so many helped.

"Their hands are right beside my hands."

The House of Mercy will expand the family support activities that have been provided at St. Peter the Apostle Christian Life Center, 13 S. Poppleton St., and move all operations cater-corner to 901 Hollins St.

"We will ask for construction bids this month, demolish the old funeral home next month and break ground in the fall," she said. "We'll open in late spring next year."

In 1992, Downing and other sisters first talked with local residents about building a center. They started programs in 1993, began soliciting funds, and incorporated and bought the boarded-up former funeral home.

"It's a privilege to be able to do such wonderful work, even though lots of days, I want to pull my hair out," Downing said.

The pavements of her sphere of influence are often considered unsafe for children, a part of town where a 1995 Morgan State University survey said one-third of high school students dropped out and 80 percent of 1,571 households were occupied by renters.

Poppleton is within the area the House of Mercy generally serves, about a dozen blocks from Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Few outsiders know that Southwest Baltimore is full of nonprofit places of hope amid drug dealing and poverty, said John H. Ott, a champion of West Baltimore. "Not just points of light, but beacons. The House of Mercy is a real bright star.

"No one talks much about west of Martin Luther King Boulevard," said Ott, executive director of the nearby B&O Railroad Museum and a House of Mercy fund-raiser. "It's all the Inner Harbor and DTC the Eastside, but the House of Mercy is one of many stabilizing influences over here.

"The sisters create such a sense of well-being for mothers and their children. The sisters are not willing to give up on one child. They feel if you save one child or one family, that makes a great difference.

"Whenever I'm in the dumps, I call Sister Margaret or Sister Katherine Nueslein, and they tell me a good story from their neighborhood."

The sisters plan a three-story building of 8,000 square feet and about 25 rooms.

"This will be a safe, healthy place for families," said Downing, describing a site for instruction, community meetings and supervised activities.

Programs will be added, such as health screening and lessons in being a good parent, nutrition and budgeting.

The house will continue several children's programs praised for raising classroom scores at nearby James McHenry Elementary School: after-school care, mentoring and summer "self-confidence" sessions for girls in sewing, cooking and other skills.

She expects the nonprofit organization will grow to serve 200 families from the current 60 families. One paid staff member and 60 volunteers will become a paid staff of six and a greater number of volunteers, Downing said.

Volunteers run the house. They include high school students recognized by the governor for their after-school work with children.

To make the new center possible, more than 50 individuals and several major donors completed the drive. They include:

The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, $150,000; the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, $125,000; the Mercy Mission Fund, $100,000; the Marion I. and Henry J. Knott Foundation, $20,000; the William G. Baker Memorial Fund, $15,000; and the Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund, $15,000.

Corporate donors include Crestar Bank-Maryland, NationsBank, First National Bank of Maryland, Alex. Brown & Sons, Whiting-Turner Construction Co., Ernst & Young and C. W. Amos.

The financing includes a Maryland bond of $250,000 and a pledge of $100,000 from the city's Department of Housing and Community Development.

The Jacob and Anita France Foundation and the Robert G. and Anne M. Merrick Foundation Inc. supplied the final piece, a $50,000 challenge grant to be used to leverage additional funding to finish the project.

Pub Date: 8/14/97