South Campus

With the purchase of the Franciscan Renewal Center, Lewis and Clark has added approximately 18 acres of land and 87,000 square feet of buildings to our real property inventory. In the near term the College has many pressing space and facilities needs that we hope to address with these additional facilities. Chief among these are spaces for the Graduate School and temporary quarters for college offices, programs and classrooms that will be displaced due to construction new Student Residences, the Albany Center and the Social Science building.

In the longer term, the buildings and grounds of the FRC will be carefully evaluated for uses that are both compatible with the overall mission of the College and are sympathetic with the architecture and landscape character of the property. We expect that this effort will occur in the context of the College's Conditional Use Master Plan update scheduled for 2008.

The History of the Franciscan Renewal Center & Corbett House

The history of the Franciscan Renewal Center dates back to 1943 when the Sisters of St. Francis purchased the French Chateau belonging to Hamilton and Harriet Corbett. The history of the Corbett House goes back to the early Portland days.

The Corbett House

The Corbett family is considered one of Portland's founding families. Henry Winslow Corbett arrived in Portland in 1851 and moved from the hardware business, to controlling interest in First National Bank, to becoming one of the State's first U.S. Senators. His grandson and his wife purchased a twenty-acre site in the Riverview area of Portland to build their home. An interesting note, and a reminder of the charm of earlier days, is that the owner of the land, a Dr. Huddleston, had no intention of selling it - he had hopes of building a hospital on the site. However, a relative of the Corbett's who knew the doctor, and knew of his fondness for poetry, wrote the doctor a pleading letter in verse that convinced him to sell to the young couple. In 1927 plans were underway for a magnificent house.

The architect commissioned was a young man named Pietro Beluschi. This house was his first solo commission. He went on to become an architect of international acclaim. He has said the Corbett Mansion did not challenge his creativity, as Mrs. Corbett had very definite ideas as to what she wanted.

The house is a combination of two architectural styles: the fenestration, roof and other details characterize it as a French chateau, however, because brick was used so extensively, it qualifies as a simplified Georgian design. The weathered brick for the exterior was obtained from the old 1890's Blitz-Weinhard brewery. Two of the fireplaces are 18th century French original, made of marble carved with baroque details. The floors in the forty room house are entirely made of hardwood, constructed with wooden pegs. The wallpaper in the dining room is an original Italian design. The excess paper was deliberately destroyed. The gray-toned print was designed to be washable so that it would remain permanently in the house. The house was finished in 1929, although, because of the stock market crash of that year, the attic ballroom and the intended swimming pool were never completed.

The landscape was designed by Frederick Olmsted, Jr.. His father was Frederick Olmsted, Sr., and is considered one of the great landscape architects having designed Central Park in New York. The landscape installation was never fully completed but the plans are perseved and can be viewed in the Corbett House.

In 1942 the property was sold to the Franciscan Sisters, who were looking for a place for their novitiate. It became known as Our Lady of Angels Convent. Basically, the house was preserved as it was, however, the drawing room became a chapel and the large attic, intended for a ballroom became a dormitory for the young sisters.

Subsequent additions to the estate include a three-story building completed in 1951 which housed novices and postulants, a complex of kitchen and dining hall facilities added in 1957, and the beautiful Our Lady of Angels Chapel, dedicated in 1958. A complete renovation of the three-story building was made in 1981 to accommodate the need for a retreat and conferencing center. In 1995, further renovations created additional space for private retreats and conferencing.