Current Projects
Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel, Joy Junction, Albuquerque

In 1937, Archbishop Rev. R.A. Gerkin purchased property in Albuquerque’s South Valley to establish a Catholic school for boys. He invited the Brothers of Our Lady of Lourdes of Oostacker, Belgium to manage the school which was equipped with carpentry shops, a printing plant, and a dairy. Academic courses included agriculture, religion, science and languages. Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel was built soon after the school opened. It is an adobe, flat roof, Pueblo-style structure, hosting a large nave with a transept and a choir loft.

The Lourdes School closed in the 1940’s and Joy Junction, Albuquerque’s largest emergency homeless shelter, has managed the property since 1983. Joy Junction purchased the property in 1998 from the New Mexico Girls' Ranch and is now in the process of restoring the chapel. Abandoned for almost twelve years, the structure is in a state of extensive deterioration. In the winter of 1999, Jeremy Reynolds, Joy Junction’s director, contacted Cornerstones for assistance. Staff member Francisco Uviña worked with the Joy Junction staff to install protective shoring in preparation for performing a complete assessment of the building with help from architecture students at the University of New Mexico. This spring and summer, volunteers from Albuquerque and youth groups from around the state as well as Omaha, Nebraska have participated in a series of successful workdays during which they worked to stabilize the roof and remove a concrete bond beam and deteriorated apse wall. The rotted wood floor in the apse was also taken out in preparation for the next step, making adobes and rebuilding the apse wall.