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McCabe Renewal Center - History
Comfortable Family Home
McCabe Renewal Center was originally the family home of W.J. and Jane Chidlaw McCabe and their two sons, Ben and John. Built in 1914, the Georgian-style three-story home of dark-brown brick stands on a spacious lawn of about four acres. Mr. McCabe was a grain buyer in partnership with his brothers. Mrs. McCabe, the daughter of an itinerant preacher, rode by carriage with her father to small, rural church congregations. As a family, the McCabes were active members of nearby Glen Avon Presbyterian Church and very proud of their Scottish heritage.
McCabe Guest Home
When W.J. McCabe died in 1933, Mrs. McCabe moved from their home into an apartment, and their sons were given the task of disposing of the family home and property. In 1940, they offered the house as a gift to St. Ann's Home, then located in the original St. Mary's Hospital at 20th Avenue West and Third Street. The home was gratefully accepted by the parent corporation of St. Ann's, St. Scholastica Monastery, the motherhouse of the Duluth Benedictine Sisters.
In a very short time the house was prepared as a residence for retired men and women. Under the name McCabe Guest Home, it was a place of gracious living for senior adults who no longer lived in their own homes. During those years, the Guest Home was home to 15 to 20 adults and a staff of four Benedictine Sisters. It is interesting to note that Mrs. McCabe chose to return to her original home where she lived until her death in 1947.
When the new St. Ann's Residence was built in 1963 at its present site on Fourth Avenue East and Third Street, all the residents of McCabe Guest Home moved into the new facility. State guidelines for senior housing were standardized, and the beautiful old three-story house did not meet the regulations.
Staff and residents of McCabe Guest Home
Interim
For a period of approximately 15 years, the McCabe house had multiple uses. It served as a dormitory for students from Stanbrook Hall and The College of St. Scholastica. Benedictine Sisters lived there and offered piano lessons. For a time the house was home to a number of physically handicapped adults. Though satisfying for those that lived there, these uses were in reality temporary measures to keep the house occupied until a permanent use could be discovered.
McCabe Renewal Center
New life was breathed into the home in 1977 when it became McCabe Renewal Center, a facility devoted to retreats and programs promoting spiritual and personal growth. The former family dining room became the chapel, and the bedrooms, refurbished and named, became sleeping space for 15 guests in single, double, or triple occupancy rooms. Programs were and are designed to bring hundreds of people of many religious traditions to the Center. The facility is also available to nonprofit groups whose missions are in harmony with that of the Center.
There is an aura of peace permeating the house, attracting numerous people to use it as a space for private retreats or times of reflection. The gift of the home to the Benedictine Sisters is appreciated by the staff who live here and by the hundreds of guests who spend time here each year.
The gracious hospitality, characteristic of both the McCabe family and the Benedictine Community, lives on today in McCabe Renewal Center. Two different histories, two different lifestyles and two different religious traditions have blended to bring vibrancy to the treasured old home.