Skip to main content

Coquina

         The walls of the Motherhouse are made out of coquina rock that was quarried on St. Anastasia Island. The early sisters actually helped break up the large stones being used. The walls are between 12 and 18 inches thick. Originally the house was a simple French Romanesque architecture with wooden porches. The original colors were white walls with red roofs. Today the Motherhouse is an ivory or cream color with burgundy/red roofs and the porches are concrete.

         
          The entire building is only about 15,000 square feet, but it appears more massive due to its U-shaped design. Additionally, the building is proportioned to full scale on the first floor, 7/8s scale on the second floor, and 3/4s on the third floor. This is a concept used throughout Disneyworld to give buildings a look of stability and greater height. The design expresses the architecture of the motherhouse of the original sisters, using elements of their house in Le Puy, France.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October 2018 Do you like to look at old photos? Most of us do, even though the quality of the photos may have faded over time. Here I am at about age 11 or 12 standing with my Mother and my sister Barbara's mother-in-law, Mrs. Leila Ponce, in Mrs. Ponce's front yard in north Jacksonville. My Mother, Grace Stovall, is holding my first nephew and her first grandson, Patrick Ponce, in her arms following his baptism, I believe. This was around 1960 or 1961. See the old cars behind us? My nephew had to find a copy of his baptismal certificate recently because he plans to get married in April in a Catholic church up in North Carolina. He was baptized in our home parish, Holy Rosary, in Jacksonville. At this time I was a student at Holy Rosary School. My parents allowed me to go there after it opened, which for me was when I was entering fourth grade. My first teacher in Catholic school was Sister Philip Neri, an Irish Sister of St. Joseph who died tragically in an automobile cr...
2 comments
Read more
 Pandemic and Presence  The Catholic Health Association graphic of a woman wearing a mask (above) to demonstrate her love of her neighbors during the Covid-19 pandemic is one of the best visuals I have to symbolize what self-sacrificing love looks like right now in our world. I do not know one person who enjoys wearing a mask, especially here in Florida with our heat and humidity.  Another way to demonstrate self-sacrificing love now is staying home and avoiding risky behaviors such as optional traveling and being in crowded groups of people where others may not be wearing masks and social distancing is difficult.  As Sisters of St. Joseph who have been seized by God's love, we work in collaboration with others to bring union and reconciliation to our world "that  all may be one." (John 17;21) Looking back at all the tragic events of 2020 and even recently in our own country, the need for this mission and charism of healing and reconciliation and unity is greate...
Post a Comment
Read more
  Why Joseph? Statue of St. Joseph and Child Jesus in front foyer of Motherhouse. During this Year of St. Joseph in the Diocese of St. Augustine, I thought a blog entry on how the Sisters of St. Joseph received their name would be fitting . S ince October 15, 1650, is recognized as the official founding of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, I decided to post this on October 15, 2020, 370 years later.   In researching this topic, I found a page on the Philadelphia (Chesnut Hill) Sisters of St. Joseph website that was written by Sister Dolores Clerico, SSJ, one of their members who is familiar to our Congregation since she has spoken at our Assemblies, and even led a Congregational retreat one summer at Marywood.  According to Sister Dolores, St. Joseph was in the shadows before the 16th century. St. Teresa of Avila, the discalced Carmelites, the Jesuits and Franciscans and many newly-formed confraternities of Catholic laity in Europe began to promote dev...
Post a Comment
Read more