(quirky flute music) - [Narrator] Illinois Stories is brought to you by The Corporation For Public Broadcasting, Illinois Arts Council Agency, and by the support of viewers like you.

Thank you.

- Hello, welcome to Illinois Stories.

I'm Mark McDonald in Springfield on the campus of Benedictine University, or it used to be Benedictine University.

It also used to be Springfield College in Illinois, and it also used to be Ursuline Academy, depending on your age and what your memory factor is.

But it recently sold, and a Springfield man many of you know, his name is Tony Libri, and his wife Ann have purchased this property.

And it's gonna be a very interesting project, Tony, because you now have 25 acres of various aged buildings in various conditions.

I don't know even you have enough ideas to cover all this.

- Well, it's gonna be a process, that's for sure.

And it started out with the love of one building.

The music conservatory, which I'll show you here soon, was the building that I wanted to preserve the most, and it was something that drove this whole process.

And like I say, they... Benedictine was having problems getting the whole campus sold, so they said, "Tony, we'd love to sell you the, the music conservatory, but we've got to sell the rest of the campus."

And so I went about trying to find somebody to buy the campus.

Couldn't find anybody, so we finally worked out a deal with Benedictine.

They really blessed us with working with us on this thing, and made it happen so we could contract to buy everything, and then sell off the parcels that we knew we weren't going to use.

And that will help pay off the mortgage on the place.

- Okay, we're standing in front of these three buildings 'cause these are the three original buildings.

- These are the three oldest, yes.

- Okay, and on our right over here is the chapel.

- That's correct.

- And this is part of the Ursuline Academy, right?

- That's correct.

That was built, I believe, in 1875.

It's a beautiful chapel, and we'll see that here pretty soon.

This is the original school, Ursuline school building.

It was built in 1857.

- Wow, okay.

- It's three stories, plus the lower level, which is where the cafeteria was, and the school members did various things.

Then there's a bell tower on the top, so it's like the equivalent of a seven story building here.

14 foot ceilings, 12 foot ceilings, 10 foot ceilings.

So it's interesting how they engineered these things.

And then there's the music conservatory, which was built in 1897, and it is probably, I've been told, one of the most acoustically perfectly tuned rooms in central Illinois.

- [Mark] Look at those beautiful arch windows.

Isn't that something?

- [Tony] Yeah, and you're gonna love that building.

The neat thing is, all of these buildings are connected.

You never have to go inside or go outside, once you enter one of these buildings.

And that's on every level.

They really had planned this out.

Now, there's about 13 buildings on this campus.

There are three convent buildings, living quarters, on the side of the chapel, and then there's the SCI property, the Brinkerhoff Home, and Becker Library, after that.

So it's quite a place.

- Okay, before we get everybody confused about where we are and what we got, what I'd like to do is I'd like to go into these two buildings here, and then we can move down and see the rest of the campus.

- [Tony] Great idea.

- [Mark] The newer part of the campus.

But I would like to see especially this one, 'cause you say this is gonna be...

This will become a center for music.

- [Tony] Oh, yeah.

And you know what?

I don't know if your viewers know this, but you are quite the singer, quite the vocalist.

- [Mark] Well... - [Tony] No, I know that from personal experience, and I'm hoping you'll be one of the folks that lifts your voice in that building.

- Well, I hope so too.

- It'll be a great place for you to do that.

Shall we go?

- Let's go in here first.

- All right.

- Okay, Tony, we've walked into the school room building.

- This is the original school building.

This was what started it all.

It was a school.

It was living quarters for some of the initial students back in the 1800s.

It evolved into just a school building after that.

But it's a fantastic building.

The architecture is really, really speaks to the era that it was built in, the curved walls.

Look at these doors, as an example.

I mean, there are people that would- - [Mark] Well, Tony, this is like a 14 foot ceiling.

- [Tony] Yes, it is.

- [Mark] Those doors are 14 feet high.

Look at that.

- [Tony] Yes.

You just don't see stuff like this anymore.

- [Mark] Arched doorways.

- [Tony] Can we proceed out?

- Yeah.

- Well, and then you're greeted by a lovely statue.

- [Mark] Yeah.

- [Tony] Of Jesus.

Everything is designed for effect.

I don't know if they had that...

I'm sure they did have it in mind, but it just works.

It's beautiful.

Now, this building hasn't been occupied since 2007, to the best of my knowledge.

But let me tell you what we're gonna do.

We hopefully want to use this building as like a business center.

So now with all the COVID concerns and things, people are downsizing, so they want to rent spaces like this.

- [Mark] For office space.

- Yeah, sell their big buildings, or don't lease the big building, and then grab a room like this.

Again, this is 14 foot ceilings in here.

It might be a little bigger than what most people want.

But they could do that, and then when they, they need a bigger space for conferences or Christmas parties, whatever, then they can share the library.

- Let's go check it out.

- Shall we go in there?

- And keep in mind that this is three stories, right?

- That's correct.

- So you've got the same...

The ceilings aren't as tall, but you've got this much space upstairs in two more floors, right?

- Exactly.

- So this was the library.

- Plus a lower space.

- This beautiful flooring.

These wooden floors are beautiful.

- [Tony] And they were so ahead of their time.

You can see we had a roof leak at one time.

That's been repaired.

But this has the folding room dividers, but they're wood, and they're really ahead of their time.

So there's actually three- - Oh, they sure are.

Look at that.

- [Tony] Yeah, they're screwed shut.

- These pull out.

- [Tony] So the high school kids wouldn't break them, I guess.

(laughs) But we've been cleaning out these spaces, and it's gonna be lovely.

We already have four companies that want to rent, so that'll be great.

- [Mark] That will be great.

Okay, so we're in the middle building, the school building.

We're gonna go see the music conservatory, and then your wife's gonna join us to show us the chapel, one of the original buildings.

- She's a lot better looking than I am.

I think you'll enjoy talking to her more.

That's for sure.

Let's walk.

And all of these buildings are connected.

- These three buildings that we're talking about?

- Well, actually six buildings, the three convents, or the living quarters, and these, on every level.

So, that's kinda neat.

And you'll be surprised at the quality.

I mean, it's all dusty and everything, but look at this woodwork.

- [Mark] Yeah, the spindles.

Look at those.

- [Tony] It's everywhere.

This is a woodworker's heaven.

- [Mark] Well Tony, this was what made you fall in love with this project.

- [Tony] This is it.

- [Mark] This music conservatory.

- [Tony] And it actually is a conservatory.

It was designed.

You see all these practice rooms on the top?

There's like 20 of them that go around the entire building.

- [Mark] Wow.

- [Tony] This is a carbon copy of this side.

It's all mahogany wood.

Each one of those little practice rooms had a piano, or some musical instrument taught in there.

And this is just a perfectly acoustically balanced room.

It's 15,000 square feet, which is quite large, and it's magnificent, it really is.

I just can't find the words to tell people how beautiful this really is.

If you look at the ornamentation around the stage, everything was handcrafted back in the 1800s when this was built.

- [Mark] You could stage things from here.

You could also, if you have portable chairs and tables, you could also stage things in the round down here.

But what I really like, the idea is that you've got these... You're gonna be a good customer for a piano company.

- [Tony] They're already calling.

(laughs) - [Mark] You have 20 rooms here, and you will have instruments in there.

- [Tony] Right.

Some of these rooms, as an example, might be sponsor rooms.

The Mark McDonald Room up there.

So that way, every program that's locally originated here, you would have access to your private booth up there, see.

And they extend all the way around the building.

And the lower level, this is the second story, actually, the lower level is where all the props were made, and things like that.

But that will become bathrooms and a snack bar, things like that.

- The acoustics sound very good in here.

- Yes.

- Not too echoey, but just enough.

- And the funny thing is, just talking on this stage, you can be heard anywhere in this auditorium.

- Let's go down on the main level here.

And we were talking about, you were talking about the woodwork, and you can see here how gorgeous that is.

- Yeah, you can see that's all hand carved stuff by the nuns.

- [Mark] And you weren't without some issues too.

I mean, your sleight roof is in good shape, but on the sides you have some water leakage.

- We had a roof leak here.

- You can see what's, what's happened here to that floor, and also to the floor below.

That's such a shame.

- [Tony] It is, but it's being repaired.

And what we're doing is ensuring that this thing is gonna live another hundred years.

And as I mentioned earlier, all of the partners that are buying the properties up here, we've all agreed that we want this campus to be a big Springfield gathering place.

So we all have the same dreams and visions for each one of our respected buildings that they bought.

And this is gonna be spectacular.

There'll be concerts here, dinner theater, wedding receptions, that type of thing.

But also, we're gonna bring the arts to the people that are currently underserved in our area.

And my wife will talk to you about the Matthew Project.

That's her big thing.

So this is a great place for all that.

- It sure is.

Tony, when you come into the music conservatory from downstairs, and you come up these twin staircases, the first thing you see is this magnificent stain glassed window.

- [Tony] That's a great way to describe it, magnificent.

It's a copy of a masterpiece that originated, or that exists in, I think Tuscany.

I'm not sure, but it's definitely Italy.

It's a story of Saint Cecelia, who is the patron saint of musicians, I think.

Is that correct?

- [Mark] That's correct.

- [Tony] Okay, and you'll notice they're standing on a cloud, and there's all kinds of musical instruments up there.

So how fitting it is to be in a music conservatory.

- [Mark] Absolutely.

- [Tony] It's just magnificent.

- [Mark] And when you do come up these stairs, those that are not capable of coming up these stairs, you're gonna put in an elevator in the center of these three buildings.

- [Tony] You bet, because we want everybody to be able to enjoy this wonderful gift to the community.

Everybody will be able to enjoy this.

And my family will enjoy it just as much as anybody else's family, so we can't wait either.

- Well, Ann, it gives us... We're in one of the original buildings, the chapel.

And I don't know what this will be used for, but it's a gorgeous space.

- Isn't it beautiful?

- It's a holy place.

- It is.

- You can feel it when you walk in.

The windows, and you can hear the acoustics, the echo.

It gives you a warm feeling.

- There's a different atmosphere about it, kind of a heavenly atmosphere.

It is.

You hit it right on the head when you said you can feel it when you walk in.

There's a different feeling, and it's a beautiful building.

It has a wonderful history.

The sisters, the legacy that they have left behind for us with this building and the other buildings, we want to make sure that we honor that.

Everything, regardless of what happens, what it turns into, it will always remain a holy place.

- This is a nice time to look up here because there's a choir loft with the pipe organ.

- Isn't that amazing?

- Yeah.

I mean, pipe organs are not that easy to come by.

That may be of great value sometime.

Or you and Tony love music.

This may be a way to share that.

- And if you look at the details, I didn't actually know this.

My husband told me each one of those panels, which is representative around the church, was hand carved by the sisters themselves.

- [Mark] Is that right?

- [Ann] Isn't that amazing?

- [Mark] That's wonderful.

- [Ann] Such gifted women.

- [Mark] To know that... - [Ann] Yes, yes.

So we want to preserve that.

We're very intentional about preserving and honoring the sisters' legacy here.

- Now, you yourself are founder and head of a project called the Matthew Project.

This property, these buildings are gonna become a very important part of that project, right?

- Yes, hopefully.

- With Matthew Project, just to put it quickly, I guess, grade school kids who live, in most cases, in poverty, many of them are homeless, after school, have needs that aren't being met.

What you try to do is make sure that they have good guidance, mentoring, quality of life, and maybe even some enrichment, like with the arts, for instance.

- Yes, yes.

Super excited about this.

Our goal is to move the Matthew Project over here.

We've always wanted to have a regular, even a weekly artisan component to the Matthew Project, and this is the perfect opportunity to do that, to bring music and the arts and dance to the homeless children that we serve at the Matthew Project.

- And, for instance, this would be a good music venue.

The conservatory, which was a music venue- - Yes, isn't it incredible?

- That would be a good one.

And then you'd have a number of pianos and other instruments that you could supply the kids with, and that would be there.

The altar space, it's gorgeous too.

It's empty, and it looks like maybe the nuns also did some work here on the altar.

- Yes, and down here, the inlay, it's everywhere.

It's all throughout this magnificent building.

- [Mark] Yes, it is.

- [Ann] In its simplicity, it is just spectacular.

Alpha, omega.

Just the artisan work is incredible in here.

- [Mark] Well, Ann, good luck to you.

- [Ann] One of our favorite places.

- [Mark] And to the Matthew Project.

- Thank you.

- COVID has thrown you many curve balls, and you haven't been able to use your facility, but when that's behind us, you'll have this big new facility to use.. - Absolutely, where we can do Christmas performances and music, and just love on our kiddos.

That's our goal.

- (laughs) Okay, thank you.

- Thanks, Mark.

- Okay, Tony, we're out the back door now of the music conservatory.

- Right, right.

- And we're back on ground level again.

- This is the real ugly part right here.

- Well, it is, but I mean, it also shows what you're dealing with.

Now, if we look across the street over there, those were the housing for- - [Tony] That's the former housing, right.

- [Mark] For the Ursuline nuns.

- [Tony] That's Handling Hall right there.

That's where the students lived.

That building was built in the '60s.

But this is Beata Hall, named after Sister Beata.

That was built at the same time the chapel was, I believe, and that's where the nuns lived.

Benedictine College used that as admin offices.

So everything's been used.

And this is the back of the original school building.

- [Mark] What will you use those for, the newer buildings?

- [Tony] Well, that's still up to decide yet.

We're not sure 'cause they're three large buildings.

There's actually three buildings there.

So we have to figure out what we're gonna do there.

- Working our way across, I don't want to rush you, but there was a boiler that served these old buildings.

It's no longer working.

It's that short basement.

- [Tony] So we got to take that old boiler out of there, but that's the boiler room.

This was an office, and things like that, and a garage.

This is gonna be the bistro.

- [Mark] You compared it to a World War II bombed out building, and it does look like it.

- [Tony] That's what it looks like, and it'll be magnificent.

When my wife gets done with that, it's gonna have a chandelier, and all those kind of things in there.

- [Mark] Well, it'll be for outdoor only, right?

'Cause you're gonna try to leave it- - [Tony] Yes.

- [Mark] Leave it looking bombed out.

Is that the- - [Tony] That's correct.

No roof, so it'll be weather dependent.

But this will be a room that could be used by small groups.

- [Mark] That's a great idea.

- [Tony] Yeah.

And then this is the, what much of Springfield remembers as Ursuline High School.

This is the back of it, the gym, the gymnasium.

- [Mark] You see the green paneling there.

That's part of the school too, right?

Part of the high school?

- [Tony] Right.

- [Mark] And that's already...

There's already a plan for that, isn't there?

- [Tony] Yes, this is going to be the new Destiny Church.

And again, they're friends of ours, and they're doing a lot of work, and they're cleaning it all up, and they will soon move in and start having church here.

And this is one of the partners in the future of this whole campus, and they'll be a great partner.

They really will.

- Okay, Tony, now we're stepping up in time a little bit.

In the 1930s, the Ursuline sisters wanted to start a junior college called Springfield College in Illinois.

- That's right.

- And built Dawson Hall.

- That's exactly right, and it's a beautiful building.

It's reminiscent of something you would think Harvard looks like.

- Yeah, it does.

- If you've never been there, it's kinda like this.

It's a beautiful school building, and it's in very good shape.

And this is one of the buildings that's up for sale.

And there's not too many people that are interested in buying a school building, but I'm gratified when I hear all the ideas that some people have.

So I'm sure it's gonna sell and add a tax paying body to the campus here.

This was all tax free years ago, and now all these buildings are gonna be paying taxes now, so that's kinda neat.

- Yeah, it is.

That's very good for the city.

- Let's go in.

- Okay, I want to show one thing.

Let's look down the sidewalk.

And people, you cannot drive by here and not notice that gorgeous building.

It's been a historic site forever.

It's the Brinkerhoff Home, and it was also part of your project here.

- [Tony] Yes.

When we bought it, we bought all of this.

And we have some friends who bought that, Gordon-Fiddler family.

He's going to leave it like it is, open for tourism, and he's gonna have his office and rent office space upstairs.

I would love to see that become a bed and breakfast, quite frankly.

I think that would be awesome.

The guy that built this house in the early 1800s or the mid 1800s was a good friend of Abe Lincoln, so there's a lot of Lincoln history here.

As a matter of fact, you talk about Springfield's historic names, the Landfairs, the Buns, the Lincolns, Pascal Enis, all their kids went to school here.

Not Lincoln's kids, but all these other people, the governor's kids and all.

So it's quite the historic area.

- Well, it was a private, probably the only private school at the time.

- It was.

- In Springfield, yeah.

- This was the place to go.

- Well, I'm gonna take you up on that offer to go inside... - All right, let's go.

- Because apparently, you've got heat in there, too.

(both laughing) Let's go.

That's good.

Okay, we're in Dawson Hall, Tony, and this building is in remarkable condition.

- [Tony] Great shape.

- [Mark] It's solid as a rock.

This is one of the classrooms that they used then.

- [Tony] That's a typical classroom.

It's a two story building.

Actually three, when you count the lower level, the garden level, I guess.

But full of life.

This was Springfield College in Illinois.

This was the first college, and a lot of young people, kids to us, went to school, and went on to become doctors and lawyers and prominent citizens.

And Benedictine graduated a lot of folks too.

As a matter of fact, my daughter went to school here, one of my daughters, and graduated.

There's a love for this building, and the Ursuline started all of this.

- And like you said, unfortunately, some of your older buildings that you have here aren't in this kind of condition.

You have a lot of work to do cleaning out live and dead animals.

- [Tony] That's correct.

- [Mark] All kinds of plaster and rotted wood.

But you can see, this building's in terrific condition.

- [Tony] It's in move-in condition.

And it's one of the buildings that we have left to sell.

- [Mark] What are the possibilities for something like this?

Have you had inquiries about it?

- [Tony] Yeah, we've had one guy wanted to make another school out of it.

We've had several people that wanted to make a school.

We had one guy that wanted to make an animated production house here for movies, animated movies.

And then we had one fellow that is still interested in making it an upscale apartment building, which I think would be pretty cool.

- [Mark] Well, I think that could happen.

You might have to take out a wall or two, but I think that that could happen because some of the rooms are big enough.

- Some of the rooms have a lot of style and class.

- Speaking of which, isn't this odd?

At the end of the hall on the main floor, you have this.

It looks like a chapel.

- Yeah.

It actually is designed to look like a church, but I don't know that it was ever used for that.

I don't know what the purpose was, but it certainly looks like it was some kind of counseling center or something.

But it's magnificent.

- Or it may have been the... No, they were nuns, so it wasn't the president's office.

- And the stained glass, I mean everything is in remarkable condition.

It's beautiful, much like the building.

It's ready to move in.

- Attached to this is the science building.

- Why don't we go in there?

- Let's go take a look at that.

Tony, they just.. We're in a laboratory.

We're in one of the labs.

They just walked out.

They just left everything.

- Turned out the lights and left.

This is the Weaver Science Building, which is attached to Dawson Hall.

And this is one of several biology labs, chemistry labs, that type of thing.

You can see all the glassware still here.

- That's amazing.

- And I don't know what to do with this stuff, quite frankly.

- [Mark] You know it's got value.

- [Tony] Yeah, and- - [Mark] But to whom?

- [Tony] So I'm gonna contact all the chemistry labs at the colleges and high schools and grade schools, and see if they need anything.

Here's a storage room.

- [Mark] Yeah, this storage room's fascinating.

I mean, this is...

The glassware... Well, there's boxes, unopened boxes of glassware in here.

- New.

It's new, old stock.

It's new, but it's old.

- [Mark] Never been used.

- [Tony] Never been used.

- [Mark] And unless it's broken, there's no reason to... - [Tony] To replace it.

But look at the glassware.

I mean, it's pretty neat stuff.

This...

Pardon me.

This fascinated me.

This says "Con Acid Sulfuric," and then it has the chemical symbol there of sulfuric acid.

But boy, wouldn't those be great glasses for your favorite drink, whatever that might be?

- [Mark] It really is cool.

- And then, like I say, all this new glassware, it's never been used, and it's just sitting here.

- And lab after lab after lab that are... And like you say, nice, big usable rooms, if you could maybe take the desks out and all the dividers out.

- And how cool would it be to have an office or a living quarters in a building like this, that has all this history.

And then here's another science lab, chemistry lab.

This one's been pretty well cleaned out.

- [Mark] Gas and water hookups.

But look at the size of the room.

I mean, if you took these dividers out of here, you'd have a huge space.

- [Tony] My first house wasn't this big.

(both laughing) - [Mark] If I look out this window over here, there's a beautiful building.

- [Tony] You can see the Brinkerhoff Home, and Becker Library.

- [Mark] And then Becker Library with the green roof.

And that's what I want to see next because that's also part of the operation here.

- [Tony] And the white mansion on the hill up there is the Post Home, which we've sold.

That's gonna be a senior citizens living quarters.

- [Mark] The Old King's Daughters.

- [Tony] King's Daughters' Home, yeah.

But it was originally built by the Post Cereal family, so that's kinda... Like I said, just a ton of history here.

And if we had an hour and a half, we could go into all of that.

As an example, in the auditorium that we were just in, the Von Trapp family sang there, so that's really neat.

- Really?

- Yeah.

And hopefully Mark McDonald will sing for us.

- Oh sure, yeah.

They're dying for me over there.

Okay, Tony, Becker Library.

- This is a big building.

- Yeah, and this is modern, 1965, and it's built sturdy, isn't it?

- [Tony] It is.

It's a bomb shelter kinda thing.

It's full of steel and metal.

And it's in great shape, and it's got beautiful views all the way around.

And it's even got a wraparound porch, for the most part.

So this could be a great meeting space, entertainment space.

It'd be a great library.

- Yeah.

Of course, that shelving is valuable.

If you sold all the shelving, and opened all this up, you'd have, well, I think we've talked about this, 20,000 square foot building.

- [Tony] It's almost 20,000 square feet here.

- [Mark] And on this level, it's about half that.

So I mean, restaurant, entertainment, events, whatever.

Use your imagination.

- [Tony] My wife said it's too bad we don't get a grocery store, 'cause there's not a grocery store close to this part of town.

So anything would work in here.

It's just beautifully designed, and it requires very little work to bring it up to modern code.

It's there.

- The lighting is really cool.

Look at the lighting up in the ceiling.

That's really neat.

- And again, the panoramic view, you can see the Brinkerhoff Home right there.

The conservatory is just behind us here.

It's great.

And there's the Post Home across the corner there.

And a parking lot is right across the street, so this is an ideal situation for a lot of possibilities here.

- Wow, Tony.

This could be a theater room.

- This is one of the great amenities of the Becker Library.

It's a hundred seat auditorium.

It'd be a great training facility, entertainment facility.

It's got a ton of uses.

What a great building.

- I'll bet what they were thinking was for training because you can really concentrate.

You got a concentrated area for people below a library, which makes a whole lot of sense.

But it could be entertainment too.

It could just be for fun.

Just have them open up for movies.

- And it's a hundred seat, so it's larger than what people would think.

And it's got all the electronic stuff still here.

All the projectors are still hooked up, and the sound system, so it's ready to go.

- Well, a terrific opportunity for somebody.

I'll tell you.

- You bet.

- I hope you agree with me that this is such an ambitious plan.

Those first three buildings that we saw, the oldest building, the hope is that within about a year, there'd be live music in that music conservatory, and the other buildings will be in use as well.

And, of course, these buildings that we've just seen are for sale.

Maybe they'll be being used by someone else then too.

With another Illinois Story in Springfield on the Benedictine, old Benedictine campus, I'm Mark McDonald.

Thanks for watching.

(quirky flute music) - [Narrator] Illinois Stories is brought to you by The Corporation For Public Broadcasting, Illinois Arts Council Agency, and by the support of viewers like you.

Thank you.

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