JOLIET — For over 60 years, Our Lady of Angels was considered one of the premier retirement homes in the entire Joliet area. It was operated by the Sisters of St. Francis. Then, the nuns opted to shut it down. The nuns agreed it was more beneficial to run to tear Our Lady of Angels down and eventually sell off the real estate. The land is adjacent to the Joliet Catholic Academy.
On Wednesday afternoon, Joliet Patch made a visit to the empty retirement home and captured a Facebook Live video showing Gould Brothers knocking down the front entrance of Our Lady of Angels.
In just a few days, perhaps by Thanksgiving, there won’t be anything left of Our Lady of Angels, except for the memories, memories of what it once was.
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Back in July, Joliet Patch broke the news that demolition was underway at Our Lady of Angels.
Here were some of the comments posted on Joliet Patch after Wednesday’s demolition video was shown. As you will see, a number of people believe that the Our Lady of Angels ruins will be used to build a new high school football field for Joliet Catholic Academy.
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“Embarrassing—this could have been bought by the City, the County and turned into a veteran’s, senior’s, or other housing! How could a building that is already structured as housing be demolished?! Even if JCA owns it, better plans may have been worked out. Shameful.”
“I saw the building permit today. It’s going to be a car wash and a liquor store.”
“Shame on Joliet for doing this. Could have been housing for our veterans.”
“Is a football stadium for JCA confirmed? This side of the street is not in a neighborhood. The building was vacant. Time to repurpose the property instead of letting it sit and rot. Change is difficult and sometimes sad, but progress is good for the economy.”
“I’m a parent of two JCA students. The school is staying pretty quiet and haven’t even told us what their plan is. JCA is run by the same order of nuns that own that land so they (JCA) always had the right of first refusal. I’ve heard through the grapevine that they do intend to move forward with using that space for athletic fields and practice fields, including a football field. But there is a lot of fundraising that needs to happen and meetings with neighbors, etc. This project will be years in the making is my thought. I’ll be interested to hear more info as its released.”
“Great comment/response. Private schools need to invest in athletics because that’s where the money is! The investment is worth it.”
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