JS: Sacred Heart complex's new life includes renovated apartments

In the early 20th century, Milwaukee's Sacred Heart Sanitarium earned a national reputation as a spa that offered wealthy patients water baths and other hydrotherapy for chronic illnesses.

Now, part of the Sacred Heart complex, operated by the School Sisters of St. Francis, has been converted into 77 apartments for the order's members.

"This is a day of such joy and fulfillment that our hearts are just bursting," said Sister Carol Rigali, of the order's U.S. provincial team, at a recent dedication for the $9 million project, at 1545 S. Layton Blvd.

The newly renovated apartments and common areas are in the Sacred Heart complex's six-floor Alexia Tower, with 46 units, and single-floor Clara Court, with 31 units. They include nursing care for retired nuns, most of whom served in teaching and other ministries for 60 years or more.

It amounts to "a new way of ministering in this historic Sacred Heart site," Rigali said at the dedication ceremony, which included remarks by Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki.

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