Provincial House

In the final scene of a local drama, the Sisters of Mercy prepared yesterday to leave the Mount Washington building that has been their home. The property is owned by USF&G Corp., a large insurance company that plans to expand its North Baltimore corporate center."When I walk out that door, it will be the last Sister of Mercy on this land," Sister Mary Aquin O'Neill, 56, said as movers packed a truck outside Provincial House, a 130-year-old Victorian structure.O'Neill said the religious institution on the property, the Mount St. Agnes Theological Center for Women, will reopen in February at a recently purchased stable and carriage house on Poplar Hill Road in North Baltimore.

Sister Rose O'Brien, a member of the Sisters of Bon Secours and a registered nurse who was a retired chief medical technologist, died Dec. 9 of heart failure at her order's provincial house in Marriottsville. She was 95. Margaret O'Brien was born and raised in Philadelphia, where she graduated from John W. Hallahan Catholic Girls' High School. Sister Rose became acquainted with the Sisters of Bon Secours while volunteering at St. Edmond's Home for Crippled Children in Bryn Mawr, Pa. "I felt I had a vocation, but did not want to be a teaching or cloistered nun," Sister Rose wrote in autobiographical notes.

The historic Mount Washington building that formerly housed the Sisters of Mercy will be donated to the Baltimore Clayworks by St. Paul Cos. Inc. as the company marks the first anniversary of its merger with USF&G Corp.The company said it does not need the Provincial House building, which has an estimated value of about $700,000 and has been vacant for about 1 1/2 years.Trying to sell it to a commercial organization could have raised zoning issues and caused more trouble than it was worth, Executive Vice President John A. MacColl, who heads the company's Baltimore operations, said yesterday.

Taking a motif and running with it, Elizabeth and Charles Atwood custom-built a house that could sit in the French countryside with wood shutters, timbers and flower baskets against the hand-troweled stucco-look exterior, and an interior to match. In planning the space, they wanted the flow of the rooms to be suitable for large-scale entertaining, family gatherings and children's parties. "It is a timeless generational house. It's French Provincial, with high-set door handles, the same theme throughout," Elizabeth Atwood said.

Sister Germanus Streett died Sunday at the age of 92 at the Provincial House of the Sisters of Bon Secours in Marriottsville, where she had been living since her retirement in 1982.A mass of Christian burial for Sister Germanus, the former Mary Cassandra, will be offered at 10 a.m. tomorrow in the Provincial House Chapel.She entered the Order of the Sisters of Bon Secours in 1923, received her habit in 1926 and professed her final vows in Paris in 1932.She graduated from the Bon Secours School of Nursing in 1928 and received a bachelor of science degree in nursing from Catholic University.

Sister Francis Helen Lewandowski, a member of the Sisters of Bon Secours and a retired registered nurse, died of undetermined causes Nov. 17 at her order's provincial house in Marriottsville. She had celebrated her 100th birthday earlier this year. Anna Elinor Lewandowski was born and raised in Baltimore. She was an Eastern High School graduate and earned her nursing degree from St. Agnes Hospital School of Nursing. Sister Helen Francis entered the Sisters of Bon Secours in 1934 and professed her vows in 1937.

Sister Adele Luckett, D.C., administrator of the provincial house of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in Emmitsburg, died Sunday after a heart attack at a hospital in Gettysburg, Pa. She was 71.She was administrator of the provincial house for the past two years. Before that, she was principal of Catholic High School in Portsmouth, Va., for four years and, in 1989, was Principal of the Year in the Diocese of Richmond.Earlier, she was principal and superior of Seton High in Baltimore from 1970 to 1976; and for two years before that at St. Martin's, another city school where she had also been a teacher.

Sister Margaret Hickey, a financial officer for the order of the Daughters of Charity, died of cancer yesterday at St. Joseph's Provincial House in Emmitsburg. She was 83.A mass of Christian burial for Sister Margaret will be offered at 10 a.m. tomorrow in the Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Emmitsburg.A native of Albany, N.Y., Sister Margaret graduated from business school there and later studied at Fairfield University in Bridgeport, Conn., and the University of Detroit.

Sister Eleanor McNabb, a former provincial superior of the Emmitsburg Province of the Daughters of Charity, died Friday of a heart condition at St. Joseph's Provincial House in Emmitsburg. She was 92.Sister Eleanor, who joined the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in 1938, served as provincial superior from 1962 until 1974, after which she was assigned to an office near the Vatican, where she was involved in preparations for the canonization of Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint.

A group of nuns were evicted yesterday from a historic building they had occupied since 1915 by USF&G Corp., which wants the Northwest Baltimore site to make way for a company-wide expansion.The eviction notice by the Baltimore insurance giant says the nuns must leave Provincial House in Mount Washington by Nov. 30, ending a five-year battle by the Sisters of Mercy to continue to operate the Mount Saint Agnes Theological Center for Women in the landmark two-story, blue-stone house."We've gone to the wall and they've said no way," said Sister Mary Aquin O'Neill, Sister of Mercy of Baltimore, who helps run classes, worship and fellowship at the house and also lives there with another of the six staff members.

On April 14, 2003, SISTER IRENA A. JAKUBCZYK, of Hyattsville, MD, formerly of Cleveland, OH, born in Poland, a member of the community of The Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate, of Hyattsville, MD,; loving daughter of Ewa and Joseph Jakubczyk; sister of Wieslawa Malinowska and Leszek Jakubczyk; niece of Rev. Antoni Jakubczyk; dear aunt of ten nieces and nephews. She is survived by her loving community and many friends. Visitation will be held at Sacred Heart Home, 5805 Queens Chapel Road, Hyattsville, MD, 20782, on Monday, April 21, from 12 noon until 2 P.M., where Mass of Christian Burial, will be celebrated at 2 P.M. An evening viewing on Monday, 6 to 9 P.M., at Provincial House, 1220 Tugwell Dr., Catonsville, MD, where Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Tuesday, at 11:00 A.M. Interment Holy Rosary Cemetery, Baltimore, MD. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Sacred Heart Home in her name.

Sister Rose Marie Gerace, 89, nun and social worker Sister Rose Marie Gerace, a nun in the Daughters of Charity who had been a social worker, died of cancer Saturday at Villa St. Michael, her order's retirement home in Emmitsburg. She was 89. Rosina Maria Gerace was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and entered the Roman Catholic order in 1931. She professed her vows in 1936 and took the religious name of Sister Rose Marie. After earning a bachelor's degree from St. Joseph College in Emmitsburg in 1946 and a master's in social work from Boston College two years later, she held several administrative positions in Catholic institutions and then became a caseworker for Catholic Charities in Philadelphia.

The historic Mount Washington building that formerly housed the Sisters of Mercy will be donated to the Baltimore Clayworks by St. Paul Cos. Inc. as the company marks the first anniversary of its merger with USF&G Corp.The company said it does not need the Provincial House building, which has an estimated value of about $700,000 and has been vacant for about 1 1/2 years.Trying to sell it to a commercial organization could have raised zoning issues and caused more trouble than it was worth, Executive Vice President John A. MacColl, who heads the company's Baltimore operations, said yesterday.

Sister Eleanor McNabb, a former provincial superior of the Emmitsburg Province of the Daughters of Charity, died Friday of a heart condition at St. Joseph's Provincial House in Emmitsburg. She was 92.Sister Eleanor, who joined the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in 1938, served as provincial superior from 1962 until 1974, after which she was assigned to an office near the Vatican, where she was involved in preparations for the canonization of Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint.

For more than three years, the residents of Mount Washington have battled executives of USF&G Corp. over issues of development, expansion and -- in a case where Catholic nuns were evicted from a home they've kept in the neighborhood for nearly 100 years -- common courtesy."