History slowly being recreated in Ghent
History is slowly being recreated in Ghent. Adam and Chassidy DeRoode recently purchased the 116-year-old former St. Agnes Convent School on McQuestion Street on the north side of town and are in the process of renovating it for their own home.
The three-story structure has become a bit of a showpiece for passersby who look for any updates to the renovation project in this small town.
“There are a lot of people asking us what we're doing next,” said Chassidy. “Mostly they ask why we’re doing it and how much it’s going to cost.”
“There’s a man on the east side of town that works in Marshall and every morning before he goes to work, he drives the over here to see how the house is coming,” Adam told.
The DeRoodes met while stationed in Germany and serving in the Air Force in 2008. They have been married for 7 1/2 years and have two children, Avery, 6; and Colton, 4.
Adam was born in Marshall and lived in Ghent from the age of five until graduation from Marshall High School in 1997. “I was an Army ‘brat’, so we lived all over when I was younger,” said Chassidy.
“My dad separated from the Army in 1990 and we moved to central Illinois, where he was originally from.” Chassidy graduated in 1997 from Lincoln Community High School in Lincoln, IL.
Even though they didn’t know each other, Adam and Chassidy both enlisted in the Air Force on the same day and year.
“We were in basic training at the same time and graduated at the same time,” Chassidy said, noting that they each served 20 years and 12 days in the Air Force.
“However, we didn’t meet until 2008. The Air Force only has one base where airmen attend basic military training. It was very small odds of this occurring.”
Adam, who was a Master Sergeant, had numerous jobs in the Air Force, beginning in contracting before cross-training to Boom Operate, then to Flight Engineer.
Chassidy, also a Master Sergeant, worked as a medic in a medical facility for nine years and then spent the next 11 years as an Aeromedical Evacuation Technician. Upon serving, they relocated to Ghent to begin the new chapter in their life.
The DeRoode family tree has been branching out in Ghent for many years. Ted DeRoode, Adam’s great-grandfather, owned and operated Ted’s Ballroom and was also instrumental is getting Belgian-American Days started.
As they work on renovating their new home, the DeRoodes are living with Adam’s parents, Randy and Sheila DeRoode, which is just one block east and one block south of their future home.
“We’re spending a lot of time working on the house,” said Adam, who currently is not employed so he can spend his time renovating. “Sometimes it can be 16 to 18 hours a day.”
Chassidy is a stay-at-home mom and spends a lot of her spare time assisting her husband with renovation projects. “My husband grew up admiring the lot that the house sits on, and the tree-lined street that it sits on,” said Chassidy.
“We bought the house from Regan Gemelke, who still lives in Ghent, in 2013. His parents owned it (after the convent school closed) and he purchased it from his siblings after the passing of his mother.” The building has stood empty since 2009.
Even though the house was not publicly for sale at the time the DeRoodes purchased it, Gemelke knew that Adam was interested and offered it to him when because he knew it would be renovated instead of razed.
“This is Adam’s third home he has renovated,” said Chassidy. “He did a house while stationed in North Dakota, and we did one together while we were stationed in New Mexico.”
“We have never done one of this magnitude, but our vision and love of old homes, craftsmanship and character got the best of us.”
The historic structure came about when the Sisters of St. Joseph wrote a letter expressing their desire to establish a convent school in Ghent. The parish’s response was overwhelming and the convent school was soon built approximately a block east of the old St. Eloi church at a cost of $4,000.
The church burned to the ground in 1907, but the St. Agnes Convent was spared; although it was scorched and blackened on the west side from the high winds during the fire-fighting process.
Following the fire, the convent was used as the parish for both the chapel and the school, while the town hall was also used for Sunday Mass until the new church was built. St. Agnes Convent School was blessed and opened for classes in Sept. 1902.
Several Sisters arrived a month sooner to prepare themselves.
Three siblings, Jennifer, Isabel and Sara Donnelly, were the first boarders of the school. In all, there were 16 rooms in the house, including two classrooms for grades 1-8. The larger building held 50 pupils and the smaller held 35 pupils.
There was also seven nun rooms, a music/theater room, two common rooms, an altar area, and a room for the priest to change clothes, called a vestry or sacristy, and two other rooms with unknown uses.
The chapel was located on the second floor and many people attended daily Mass, often filling the chapel, room, the corridors and even the stairway.
The third floor, which was similar to a large attic, was where the students slept. One of the students who was boarded at the St. Agnes Convent School was Adam DeRoode’s grandmother, Lorraine Peltier.
“It was just one big room with a lot of windows,” Adam explained.
“The ceilings were angled, but were as high as 7/12 to 8 feet in some areas.” It’s believed that the basement was originally used as a kitchen and cafeteria at the convent school.
Thein Moving Company of Clara City recently raised the home while the original rock foundation was removed and replaced by a modern block foundation. The house was reset last Friday. Bofferding Construction, Frank’s Electric and D&G Excavating are also contracted for the renovation project.
But the DeRoodes are doing the majority of the other work on the home.
Renovations expected include electrical, plumbing, heating, cooling, roof, windows, drywall, insulation and more. “You name it and we have to replace it,” said Chassidy.
“Adam and I have a vision and that is what keeps us going.”
“However, we have been known to change our mind … a lot.”
“We don’t need seven nun-sized rooms, so we’ll combine rooms to make larger bedrooms and bathrooms.”
“We will have four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a loving, room, laundry room, mud room, media room and eventually a full finished basement.”
The DeRoodes are planning to keep as much of the original wood as possible, including the hardwood floors, trims and exterior siding. The original built-in altar, doors and light fixtures will also remain. While working on the inside rooms, the DeRoodes haven’t discovered any valuable or historic items, as often heard in these types of 100-year-old structures.
“We uncovered a chalkboard in one of the classrooms,” said Chassidy.
“Otherwise, we found just a few old newspapers, glass bottles and even a Grain Belt sign.”
“The theater area is the neatest room we’ve been working on. We have found round corners as part of the original architecture.”
The DeRoodes hope to be 75 percent completed by Belgian-American Days in early August and plan to allow visitors to tour the home if they wish.
The DeRoodes have a Facebook page called Ghent Sister School set up to show the progress of their renovation project. It’s always a shame when a building with significant historical value such as this one is razed.
What the DeRoodes are now doing to restore this building is rewarding and allows interested parties a visual step back into history.