History in the House: Girls Home Opens Doors to Community for Architecture Tour

June 10, 2026

Our Walsh Girls Campus hosted the first stop on this spring’s Beverly Area Planning Association’s (BAPA) annual Home Tour. More than 600 visitors passed through our Walgreen Home, the Tudor Revival mansion at the historic heart of the campus, to learn more about the structure before touring the chapel built by the Cenacle Sisters.

Since 1971, the tour has celebrated the architectural treasures of the Beverly and Morgan Park neighborhood. Comprised of more than 3,000 buildings constructed between the middle 1800s to World War II, the Ridge Historical District boasts diverse residential styles ranging from Italianate to Gothic, and one of the largest concentrations of Prairie School architecture in the country. That includes several homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and his protegee, Walter Burley Griffen.

BAPA’s mission is not only to celebrate the rich architectural history of the area, but to preserve it. The Home Tour serves as an important annual fundraiser for their preservation work. Last fall, as they prepared to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the district being added to the National Registry of Historic Places, BAPA leaders approached Walsh Campus Programs Associate Vice President and Beverly native Amy Schulz about kicking off the 2026 tour from our Walgreen Home, which was commissioned by industrialist Walter R. Barker for his family residence in 1925.

Schulz recalled how the mansion showed during the group’s initial visit. “They were very impressed by the Walgreen Home Christmas tree,” she said. Though repurposed as a therapeutic home for young women, the campus in general and the Walgreen mansion in particular maintain the familiar atmosphere of a private residence. That interplay between the original and current uses of the structure was on display during the tour, thanks especially to our enthusiastic hosts.

“There’s a rich history there that you feel the need to preserve and keep the story going,” Schulz said. “I think it also shows how we teach our girls to respect the home.

Schulz said that hosting visitors, not just the BAPA tour but routinely throughout the year, is buoyed by the sense of pride that residents and coworkers have in the historic building.

“We’re lucky to occupy this space and carry forward the story,” she said. “It started out as at home and it still is a home. And we’re always trying to make these girls feel like this is their home away from home.”

Before entering our Walgreen Home for the BAPA Home Tour, guests were greeted by 2026 South Side Irish Parade Queen Erin Larkin. Larkin’s involvement was a fitting acknowledgement of local pride shared by residents of the community. Once inside, guests were greeted and treated to guided tours by coworkers and youth who pointed out the many preserved original features and idiosyncrasies that have made the mansion special for more than 100 years, while detailing the ways that spaces throughout the home are used to nurture our young women today.

The tour included five distinct areas of the Walsh Campus. The Walgreen Home kitchen, which was expanded and refurbished in 2016, still features an original breakfast nook, for example. Visitors in the dining room observed the original sconces, leaded glasswork, and ornate floral reliefs carved above its large bay window.

More eagle-eyed visitors spied the permanent marks left throughout the mansion by its original owners. One subtle example was the letter ‘B’ for the Barker family carved in the archway of the study. Another was the word “Fleetwood,” after the name given to the original estate, etched into the stone mantle over the living room fireplace.

Both the living room and the study still have working wood-burning fireplaces, one of which roars to life each Christmas as our young people gather to open Christmas presents and welcome a visit from Santa Claus.

The living room, also dubbed the Pink Room after its decor, serves as the social hub of the mansion and wowed visitors with its vaulted ceilings, original woodwork, nearly floor-to-ceiling windows, and original artwork by famed Chicago preservationist and historian Jack Simmerling.

While the Barker Family built the home in the 1920s, the Walgreen mansion got its name when Charles Walgreen, Jr., heir to the worldwide pharmacy chain, purchased the residence in the 1940s. He later donated it to the Chicago Archdiocese in 1948 for use by the Cenacle Sisters as a retreat house.

The Senacle Sisters invested in and expanded the property dramatically over the years, resulting in the mixed building styles visible throughout. In addition to the dormitory wing that now houses living spaces for girls and young women, the sisters built a large chapel in 1962. Tour guests had the opportunity to take in the soaring stained-glass windows along the east wall that depict women in helping professions, a legacy of the sisters that continue to serve as inspiration for young people and visitors.

In the 1980s, as the sisters looked to relocate, the property on South Longwood Drive became available. Mercy Home worked with BAPA to acquire it for a girls home as part of our upcoming centennial celebration of 1987. Mercy Home had experience operating satellite homes for young working women in the 1920s, called Rita Clubs, but the need was evident for a full-time home for girls and young women similar to the one for boys and young men that operated on the West Side for nearly a century.

At Chicago Archbishop Joseph Cardinal Bernardin’s request, Walgreen Company President Charles Walgreen III purchased the property from the Sisters and donated it to the Chicago Archdiocese for Mercy Home. This gift made possible a new chapter in the Home’s centennial year—a place where young women could find safety, healing, and hope.

After working at the West Loop Campus since 1999, Amy Schulz came to our girls home in 2012. It was a homecoming for someone who grew up in the neighborhood. As a young parishioner at St. Barnabas Parish, she also remembers her future boss, Fr. Scott Donahue, from his time as Associate Pastor there.

Leveraging her passion and pride for both Mercy Home and her community, Schulz always looks for ways for the neighboring community to get involved. “I think [the tour] was great because it was a way to connect.”

Visitors were provided information on supporting the home through donations and by volunteering as tutors. Schulz encourages local businesses and organizations to offer job or volunteer opportunities to our young women.

“We have kids that are willing to work and get some experience and put some time in,” Schulz said. The tour was a chance to strengthen connections to the community that may lead to those kinds of opportunities. It also allowed us to celebrate the impact our home has on the local community. Just this spring, for example, our young people participated in a neighborhood cleanup for Earth Day, and each year, many volunteer to operate the water stations at the Ridge Run 5K run.

Thank you to our friends at the Beverly Area Planning Commission for selecting Mercy Home for this year’s tour and providing this opportunity to welcome the community into our home.

Special thanks also to the coworkers and youth who volunteered during the tour, and two members of our Leader Council who participated, Nancy Bentley, PhD, and Maureen Gainer Reilly.