Working to the secure future of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa and the order’s home at Sinsinawa Mound Center, Sister Quincy Howard, an urban planner, pauses in the resting place of members who’ve died since its founding in 1847. With few women entering the congregation, Sinsinawa is being downsized.
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Three buildings totaling more than 300,000 square feet are being sold at Sinsinawa, in southwestern Grant County. If the buildings are not sold to a buyer that aligns with the Dominican mission, they will be removed. About 110 people live and work on the 450-acre campus, but by 2023 that number will be reduced to about 30.
A 500-seat auditorium at Sinsinawa Mound Center occupies one level of the 94,600-square-foot Rotunda building.
Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, who migrated to the U.S. from Italy at age 22 in 1828, began missionary work in 1930, the same year he was ordained as a Catholic priest. He came to southwestern Wisconsin in the late 1830s and in 1847 formed a community of Dominican Sisters at Sinsinawa.
Sister Toni Harris, prioress of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, views the grounds of the campus last week from a dining hall. Outside the window at left is the St. Clara Convent building constructed in 1899, which is among those being sold.
A bell from the former St. Dominic Church, which was dedicated on the grounds of Sinsinawa Mound Center in 1845, is displayed near the St. Clara Convent building, one of several structures the Dominican Sisters' order is looking to sell.
Distinctive diamond-shaped windows comprise a wall of a hallway between buildings on the campus of Sinsinawa.
Sister Quincy Howard of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa takes in the sweeping views from an upper floor of a dormitory building that is among those being sold. The property is on one of the highest points in southwestern Wisconsin.
Stained glass windows rim the Queen of the Rosary Chapel on the campus of the Sinsinawa Mound Center.
Laurana Snyder, a horticulturalist and farm coordinator for property owned by the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, is among those renting some of the 120 acres of farmland on the property. Snyder is hoping farming opportunities expand on the property in an effort to assist small farmers.
Sister Priscilla Wood, director of the Office of Arts and Cultural Heritage at Sinsinawa Mound Center, in the 500-seat Queen of the Rosary Chapel. Located in the Rotunda constructed in 1964, the building also includes a 500-seat auditorium and two museums.
Photos: A tour of the Sinsinawa Mound Center
The center is being downsized with the sale of three large buildings as few Sisters enter the Dominican order each year.
Three buildings totaling more than 300,000 square feet are being sold at Sinsinawa, in southwestern Grant County. If the buildings are not sold to a buyer that aligns with the Dominican mission, they will be removed. About 110 people live and work on the 450-acre campus, but by 2023 that number will be reduced to about 30.
Barry Adams covers regional news for the Wisconsin State Journal. Send him ideas for On Wisconsin at 608-252-6148 or by email at badams@madison.com.
