Sister Helen Jane Jaeb left her downtown Mankato office one morning last week and traveled up the steep road to the top of Good Counsel Hill.
“I had a meeting with the man who tunes the chapel’s organ,” said Jaeb, who is a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame Central Pacific Province’s council.
Sisters and employees on the Good Counsel campus once worked from offices spread out across the grounds. In 2022, more than 100 members of SSND moved from that massive complex that had been home to nuns for about 110 years.
Jaeb lived and worked on “The Hill” for several years. From 1980-1985, she was co-director of vocations for the former Mankato province. She served her first term on the provincial council from 2009-2011 in the former Mankato Province at Our Lady of Good Counsel.
SSND is a teaching order — not contemplative— so its members have been very visibly active in Mankato. When the sisters lived on the Good Counsel Hill, they regularly drove down to public events, to shop or for medical appointments. During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, they isolated themselves on campus.
Jaeb’s new space for her province office is on the third floor of the historic Brett’s Building. The room she now works from is not as large as her former office. The atmosphere is not the same either.
“But that’s fine. It may be a different feel, but it’s homey.
“Here we are all together — our offices now are all on one level,” Jaeb said.
Office employees also transferred to the new downtown location that is leased from Mankato Place’s management. The big move was in the middle of July and took about two days to complete.
Heather Spann, development coordinator for the SSND, now works in an office a few doors down from Jaeb’s. She enjoys having impromptu conversations with her co-workers when they meet in the hallways. During a tour of the new space, archivist Sister Mary Kay Ash pointed to a roof patio that she uses during lunch breaks on warm, sunny days.
The SSND Mankato province office’s departments include archives, communications, finance, human resources, information technology, resource development, support staff and transportation.
Sister Mary Kay Brooks, who also serves on the SSND Central Pacific Province Council, has served as the curator for the many sentimental objects, artworks and pieces of Good Counsel history that, along with files and office equipment, were moved down from the hill.
Brooks made her selections on what to bring to the new space at a time when the SSND members were downsizing and prepping for rummage sales. She admits to not having an arts or museum background.
“I just went around and said, ‘I like this one and I this one.’”
Many of her choices are on permanent display in the third-floor main hallway. Brooks made a point to include pieces that represent all SSND Mankato sisters’ cultures and countries.
Several objects are stored in display cases or behind glass, but one exception is an antique porcelain vase depicting the stations of the cross that is used annually during a foot-washing ceremony on Maundy Thursday.
Brooks said employees were given the chance to decorate their new offices with art and memorabilia that had adorned the walls of their former work spaces.
Spann brought along a pair of familiar expressionistic paintings.
“I don’t know much about them or who made them, but I’ve always really liked them,” Spann said.
Jake Zojonc, the Mankato-based IT director for the province, furnished his office with a desk he’s used throughout his 24-year career.
“It’s an old teacher’s desk I really wanted to keep using.”
He’s noticed familiarities in the size of the windows and the color of brick and other materials used in Good Counsel buildings and in the Brett’s Building.
“I’m guessing they (the original architects) used the same locally sourced builders,” he said.
Brett’s Department Store was one of downtown’s largest and most popular places during its long lifetime, 1868-1991, according to an April 2021 article by Blue Earth County Historical Society’s Heather Harren. In the 1910s and 1920s, the store was expanded to a three-story building.
Zojonc was one of the members of the search committee that made the decision to lease from Mankato Place, a development group that oversees the Brett’s Building.
“We zeroed in on it in January-February of last year … after we looked at a number of possibilities,” he said.
“This one (Brett’s) definitely stood out as the one closet to be ready (for the move-in) and the one that meets our needs.”
According to its website, Mankato Place combines renewable energy technology, high-tech solar lighting and clean architectural design while preserving the historic charm of the space. This allows the wide range of government, retail and other business tenants to express their unique personalities while complementing each other.
The Mankato Place management team has been accommodating throughout the transition, said Zojonc, who keeps busy reorganizing the space, finishing up wiring and working on computer projects.
One plan in the works is a large photo display of each Central Pacific Province location: Dallas, Milwaukee, St. Louis as well as Mankato.
The School Sisters of Notre Dame Central Pacific Province is part of an international community of religious women whose mission is to proclaim the good news, directing their entire lives toward that oneness for which Jesus Christ was sent, according to the province. The sisters live and minister in 47 dioceses, 22 states, Ghana, Guam, Italy, Japan and Kenya. They continue the sacred work of their foundress, Blessed Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger, to transform the world through education, giving special emphasis to women, young people and those who are poor.
Brett’s is in the center of Mankato’s downtown, which potentially offers the SSND Mankato office a more visible presence in the community.
Although no public open house is yet in the works and exterior signage has not yet been installed, Jaeb wants members of the public to know they are welcome to stop by the new offices.
“We’d like to assure the public that the sisters are still here and are active and energized,” she said.