Mallinckrodt College, Wilmette, IL

efinne1540

April 2

Mallinckrodt College was built in 1916 on Ridge Road in Wilmette, Illinois. Mallinckrodt was named for Pauline von Mallinckrodt, the German-born founder of the Sisters of Christian Charity. It first admitted lay women in 1968 and became a co-educational, four-year institution in 1982. In 1991, Loyola University of Chicago bought this college. Tiny Mallinckrodt College in Wilmette was renamed Loyola University's Mallinckrodt campus. Nestled on 20 wooded acres, Mallinckrodt's gracious yellow-brick building, with fine oak-paneled hallways and stained-glass windows, had been a landmark on Ridge Road just north of Lake Avenue for some 75 years. But throughout its existence as a convent school and later a four-year, degree-granting institution, Mallinckrodt had been low-key, if not downright cloistered. They wanted Mallinckrodt to be a big university at a small campus close to home. They only had an enrollment of 280 students in 1990. Mallinckrodt's classes in general studies and business administration were being phased out as students completed those programs. However, by 2002, a little more than ten years later, Loyola sold Mallinckrodt and its land to the Wilmette Park District, who then sold it to a development group, that preserved most of the church's original architectural elements and ornate detailing. This building was converted for seniors-only residents (55 years and older). Thus, the current Senior Citizen Mallinckrodt Center is in a historic 1916 building set amidst the peaceful 14-acre Mallinckrodt Park in the heart of Wilmette. Do you have a senior citizen center in your town?