A Look at the Past:
History of McCabe Renewal Center
Comfortable Family Home
McCabe Renewal Center, formerly located at 2125 Abbotsford Avenue in Duluth, was a facility rich in history for the Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery. The building that housed McCabe Renewal Center was the family home of W.J. and Jane Chidlaw McCabe. Built in 1914, the Georgian-style three-story home of dark brown brick stood on a spacious lawn of about four acres. The house contained six fireplaces, six and one half baths, and 19 rooms. Laundry, furnace, and food storage facilities were on the basement level. Central heating, plumbing, and electricity were included in the original home.
W.J. McCabe was a grain buyer in partnership with his brothers. Jane
McCabe, the daughter of an itinerant preacher, rode by carriage with her father to small rural church congregations prior to her marriage to W.J. McCabe. The McCabes were the parents of two sons, Ben and John. Some of their descendants live nearby in Duluth.
In addition to housing the immediate family, the house served as a gathering place for members of the McCabes’ extended family. Some relatives stayed for lengthy periods of time while attending school. Other relatives and friends frequently enjoyed McCabe hospitality. Mr. and Mrs. McCabe were active members of Glen Avon Presbyterian Church. Women’s groups from the church frequently met here.
McCabe Guest Home
When W. J. McCabe passed away in 1933, Mrs. McCabe moved from the home into an apartment and their sons were given the task of divesting the family of the house and property. In 1940 they offered the house as a gift to St. Ann’s Home, then located in the original St. Mary’s Hospital at 20th Avenue West and Third Street. The home was gratefully accepted by the parent corporation of St. Ann’s, St. Scholastica Priory, the motherhouse of the Duluth Benedictine Sisters.
In a very short time the house was prepared as a residence for retired men and women. 
At that time, the kitchen was moved to the basement gameroom, the former kitchen became two bedrooms, and the butler’s pantry became a bathroom. Under the name McCabe Guest Home, the home was a place of gracious living for senior adults who no longer lived in their own homes. During those years, the Guest Home was home to 15 to 20 adults and a staff of four Benedictine sisters. It is interesting to note that Mrs. McCabe chose to return to her original home where she lived until her death in 1947.
When the new St. Ann’s Residence was built in 1963 at its present site on Fourth Avenue East and Third Street, all the residents of McCabe Guest Home moved into the new facility. State guidelines for senior housing were standardized and the beautiful old three-story house did not meet the regulations.
Interim
For a period of approximately 15 years, the McCabe house had multiple uses. It served as a dormitory for students from the College of St. Scholastica, Benedictine Sisters lived here and offered piano lessons, and for a time, the house was home to a number of adults with physical disabilities. Though satisfying for those who lived here, these uses were, in reality, temporary measures to keep the house occupied until a permanent use could be discovered.
McCabe Renewal Center
In 1977, new life was breathed into the home when it became McCabe Renewal Center, a facility devoted to retreats and programs promoting spiritual and personal growth. The former family dining room became the chapel, and the bedrooms, refurbished and given names, became sleeping space for 18 guests in single, double, or triple occupancy rooms. Programs were designed to bring hundreds of people of many religious traditions to McCabe Renewal Center. The facility was also available to nonprofit groups whose missions were in harmony with that of the McCabe.
There was an aura of peace permeating the house, attracting numerous people to use it as a space for private retreats or times of reflection. The gift of the home to the Benedictine sisters by the McCabe family was appreciated by the staff who worked here, and by the hundreds of guests who spent time at McCabe each year.
The gracious hospitality, characteristic of both the McCabe family and the Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery, lived in McCabe Renewal Center. Two different histories, two different lifestyles, and two different religious traditions were blended to bring vibrancy to the treasured old home.
St. Scholastica Monastery
1001 Kenwood Avenue
Duluth, MN 55811
(218) 723-6699
retreat@duluthosb.org
Find us in Stanbrook Hall which faces the lake and is next to the chapel by following the signs to Duluth Benedictine Ministries.