Benedictine breaks ground on $2.5 million welcome center

The past and present are about to merge at Lisle’s Benedictine University as officials prepare to turn one of DuPage County’s oldest stone structures into one of the newest.

University and community leaders stepped out from under a small tent, where they avoided the hail and freezing rain Friday, to quickly turn over the ceremonial first few shovels of dirt that, by fall, will be the site of the new Neff Alumni Welcome Center.

Major construction on the $2.5 million center will begin Monday morning near the College Road entrance on the school’s Lisle campus.

The Neff farmhouse, one of the oldest stone structures in DuPage, which until recently was used as a home by the school’s retired caretaker, will be incorporated into the center.

“We want to preserve the integrity of the structure as much as we can,” said Chad Treisch, executive director of campus planning, design and construction management. “We are even bringing in stone from a quarry in Illinois that matches the exterior of the existing building.”

University President William Carroll said the school is excited to mesh the facilities and maintain the history of the site.

“Today we’re going to begin the process of transforming this site and this building into a very special place,” Carroll said. “In the last 70 years the university has gone from St. Procopius College, Illinois Benedictine College and now Benedictine University, and in all that time there’s really only one building that has stayed true to all those names, and that’s the Neff farmhouse.”

By September, it is expected that visitors’ first impression of the campus will be the new 2,700-square-foot welcome center that also will include event space, offices, restrooms and a conference room.

“The center will house a museum depicting our 125-year history and will be a place where new students can begin their tour of campus and be welcomed,” said Julie Nelligan, director of Alumni Relations. “Graduates can come back to the center, sign a memory book and say goodbye knowing there will always be a place they can come back to for reunions and memories of their time here.”

Alumni, parents and students will all be welcome to use the center when it opens in the fall.