First independent center celebrating religious sisters’ heritage to break ground in April

CV NEWS FEED // The Women’s Religious Archives Collaborative (WRAC) is set to break ground for its Heritage Center in Cleveland, Ohio, in April, beginning construction for the first independent heritage center in the country for women religious.

According to the Diocese of Cleveland’s March 4 report on the groundbreaking, WRAC is a nonprofit founded in 2022 that includes 41 congregations of religious sisters in the United States and Canada. 

WRAC anticipates that the building will be completed in December 2026. The 30,000-square-foot facility will have room for the archive collections of 75 religious congregations and will showcase the contributions of Catholic sisters in the U.S. since 1727. 

As CatholicVote previously reported, Sister Susan Durkin, the executive director of WRAC, expressed the urgent need to preserve the legacies and histories of Catholic sisters’ congregations. 

“As members of Catholic sisters’ congregations grow older and decline in number, hundreds of years of their histories are at risk of being lost,” she said. “These women and their forbearers have made immeasurable contributions to our communities and our nation, as leaders in spiritual formation, education, health care, social service and justice efforts.”

Professional archivists will be responsible for maintaining the collections. Scholars, researchers, genealogists, schools, parishes, and families will be able to access the information in the archives through research, programming, and exhibitions, both in-person and online. 

The center will be located in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood, where religious sisters have served the local community since 1865. WRAC has asked Bostwick Design Partners to design the building and Regency Construction to build the facility. 

So far, WRAC has raised $14 million toward the heritage center. It is still fundraising to reach its goal of $24 million. 

BOSTON COLLEGE TO BUILD ARCHIVES OF NORTH AMERICAN CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS ORDERS