Brazen thieves and vandals hamper restoration work of once vibrant Springfield campus
Since Tony and Ann Libri took control of the former Benedictine University Springfield campus within the last year, the couple estimates $250,000 in damage has been done to its buildings.
The most recent and most well-documented theft earlier this week when cameras from Destiny Church, which opened in the former Ursuline Academy Sixth Street building in March, caught two suspects stealing copper downspouts off the Ursula Hall Music Conservatory.
The Rev. Eric Hansen, the church's pastor, followed and confronted one of the suspects, who was carrying part of the material while riding a bicycle in the middle of Sangamon Avenue.
Springfield police arrested a suspect late Thursday just blocks away from the campus in connection to the vandalism.
John Cheek, 53, of Springfield, was booked for felony criminal damage and theft, possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.
Cheek is being held at the Sangamon County Jail on a $75,000 bond.
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The most galling act, in Ann Libri's mind, also happened earlier this week when a panel of a stained-glass window in the chapel formerly used by the Ursuline Sisters was smashed from the outside in what was believed to be an attempted robbery.
"You don't mess with the chapel," she said. "That's such a holy and sacred place to us. We want to honor the sisters who came before us and made it a holy place. When they (damaged it), I said I'm putting this on Facebook and letting the community know because we can't do this on our own.
"We have to have our neighbors and the community help us and be our eyes and ears and let the police know and do whatever we can and move forward on this renovation."
The Libris have been tackling rehabilitating some of the buildings, including Ursula Hall, since Benedictine pulled up stakes from the north end campus in 2018, citing “a long list of capital improvement needs" and low enrollment among its reasons.
Much of the campus has sat dormant since that time, although some parts of the campus, had been unused for a decade prior.
Tony Libri, the former Sangamon County auditor and circuit clerk and Springfield businessman, said he didn't know if the two acts of vandalism were related.
About 80 feet of downspout in four separate locations was stolen, he said. Ten feet downspout costs about $600 because the pieces have to be welded together and special copper connectors have to be used, Libri said.
Thieves have also made off with about 60 feet of copper trim atop the music conservatory and all of the air conditioners around the 25-acre campus have been stripped of copper, Libri said.
"The copper might be worth $10 in value, but it costs $1,200 in damage to each of the air conditioners so it's an expensive problem," he pointed out.
The copper is taken to recyclers, though those making the haul are probably only getting "pennies on the dollar," Libri said.
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A catalytic converter was stolen off the church's bus the first week it was parked on campus, Hansen said.
Catalytic converters are prized commodities because they contain three valuable metals -- platinum, palladium and rhodium, Springfield Police Department Commander Sara Pickford said.
Because of such incidents, various companies produce catalytic converter anti-theft devices, ranging from steel plates protecting the underside of the vehicle to cages made from steel cable.
A new Illinois law that went into effect May 27 adds catalytic converters to the definition of recyclable metal, requiring businesses to keep records on catalytic converter sales. The license plate number of the vehicle, photographs or video of the seller, a verified name and address of the seller, and a signed declaration by the seller stating that the catalytic converter was not stolen are required.
SPD recorded three catalytic converter theft reports in June, though as late as April those numbers were in double digits, according to information supplied by Pickford.
"To get someone charged with a theft, we have to catch them actually doing it," she said. "We pick up a couple of guys who may have them, all they have to say is 'oh, we found it, or we didn't take it.'"
According to Macoupin County authorities, Mark A. Schafer, 36, the owner of Central Core Company, LLC, was charged Friday with one count of failure to keep electronic records of catalytic converter purchases and one count of purchasing of unattached catalytic converters under the new law.
'Doing the best we can'
Libri said he didn't have a cost estimate on the stained-glass window, though he vowed to replace it.
"The problem with the stained-glass is we have to take the whole window out and it has to go to a specialist to be restored," he said.
Those responsible, Libri added, stood on the top of an air conditioner and broke a wooden panel to get to the stained-glass window, the shattered remains of which were still on the floor Thursday.
Libri said it was the third time someone had broken into the former chapel, which was recently decommissioned by the Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese.
There also has been some minor damage to the large stained-glass window in Ursula Hall, modeled after Raphael's painting "The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia," Libri said.
About 50 to 60 windows have been broken out, some multiple times, on the campus's 13 buildings, Libri said. Numerous windows to the sisters' former living quarters facing the Sixth Street side have been boarded up.
"We're doing the best we can," Libri lamented. "We've got cameras and lights all around here, but it's a 25-acre campus. It's difficult and very expensive to light and protect everything. As the police will tell you, if someone wants to break in, they'll find a way to break-in, no matter what you do.
"These people are brazened."
Pickford said officers in the area have been doing extra patrols at night.
'Divine providence'
Hansen said it was "divine providence" that he ran into Cheek, the alleged suspect, bicycling with the folded downspout east on Sangamon Avenue.
Hansen confronted Cheek on video and then called police, retreating to his truck with the downspout only after the man reached to retrieve something from his backpack.
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"A slow roll" chase follow — the suspect on his bicycle and Hansen in his truck — on the streets behind St. Aloysius parish. Hansen eventually lost the suspect in an alley, but when he was showing police video from the campus, footage of the suspect taking the downspout came up.
"So I have them casing the joint, I've got them taking it and I've got (one of the suspects) with it on his handlebars," Hansen said.
Two of Hansen's former churches, First Assembly of God at 130 W. Carpenter St., and iWorship Center at 3200 Shaler Road, also experienced thefts, he said.
"I think with the times we're in now, there's a level of desperation," Hansen said. "There's a cost associated with having a business or company where people will take advantage of you, whether it's stealing from you or whatever. Unfortunately, the church is no different nowadays.
"There used to be a day when people thought, I'm going to steal whatever but I'm not going to steal anything from the church. I don't know if that's the case anymore."
Libri agreed.
"It takes a special kind of person to cause damage to a church," said Libri, referring to the chapel.
What's next?
The Libris' focus has been Ursula Hall, the older part of Ursuline Academy on Fifth Street, the former chapel and the former convent.
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The Ursuline Sisters founded, operated and partly staffed the high school and the former Springfield College in Illinois, which was fully subsumed by Benedictine University in 2009.
Those are buildings part of a non-profit called Preservation, Inc.
The Brinkerhoff Home and the former King's Daughters Home have been sold and Dawson Hall is a pending sale to Destiny Church.
The Dream Center, an educational center that will supplement regular schooling and homeschooling and will feature STEAM courses and vocational classes, is scheduled to open in Dawson in the fall.
The former Charles Becker Library, Libri said, is no longer for sale.
He said he would like to see it used as "an educational-based" facility.
The crown jewel of the project is Ursula Hall, where musical acts from the von Trapp Family Singers to guitarist Michael Johnson once performed.
Libri said he would like to see it used as a performance space again, though major HVAC work and the installation of an elevator are still on tap.
"The conservatory is really coming along," Libri said. "The walls are just about done being repainting and replastered.
"We're trying to help people by fixing up these old buildings, restoring them so the community can use them for whatever purpose they see," Libri added. "To see someone try to destroy that dream (by vandalizing buildings), it just breaks our hearts because we've spent our life savings on fixing this place up."
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
Sale at Ursuline
Ursuline Academy-related items, like tables, desks and artwork, will go on sale at the library in the UA Fifth Street Building from 2 to 4 p.m. on July 17.
Other furniture from the school and the Ursuline Sisters' convent also will be up for sale.
The Catholic academy was founded in 1857. It closed in 2007.
Enter from the Fifth or Sixth Street side.
Money from the sale will assist Preservation Inc., established by Tony and Ann Libri, in purchasing more security lights and cameras.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield IL preservations are upset with vandalism on former campus
