Monks built a 146-year-old Charlotte-area college. Now it’s getting a $100 million facelift
Benedictine Abbot Placid Solari is biased.
But you’ll have to forgive a man who has worked and served at Belmont Abbey College for nearly 50 years.
“We are a jewel here in Gaston County with a strong sense of community,” Solari, the eighth abbot of Belmont Abbey, told The Charlotte Observer. “This is the right time to become even more.”
Benedictine monks founded Belmont Abbey in 1876, a private Catholic liberal arts school that sits on 100 of the 750 acres owned by the monastery along Interstate 85 near the Catawba River. The monks helped design and build the campus from bricks made from local soil.
Now, it’s getting an overhaul.
College leaders on Saturday announced a $100 million capital campaign that will fund physical and academic improvements, including a new monastery and performing arts center. The “Made True” campaign began three years ago and has quietly raised $72 million.
Most of the $100 million will grow the college’s endowment to reduce its reliance on federal aid and create programs so students graduate debt free.
“This is one of the biggest events in the college’s history,” said Solari, who serves as chancellor and oversees the community of Benedictine monks on campus. “Now (we) invite alumni, students and families, and people across the region to help us close the funding gap and ensure that this type of education is available for future generations.”
Belmont Abbey President William Thierfelder and other college officials hope to hit the $100-million mark by 2026, when the college celebrates its 150th anniversary.
New will blend with the old
Belmont Abbey’s 146-year-old campus, with roughly 25 buildings, needs upgrades, particularly for a growing student population, school officials say.
It enrolls about 1,500, mostly undergraduate students, both Catholic and non-Catholic. Thierfelder says it’s looking to increase enrollment to between 1,800-2,000. They’re expanding offerings, especially master’s degree programs and tuition costs have mostly remained the same in 10 years. Students pay between $18,500 to $19,500 a year. But 95% of students utilize some type of financial aid and pay upward of $13,000 annually, school leaders said.
“We need some new facilities,” Thierfelder said. “But we have a limit to how big we want to get.”
New buildings will be designed to blend in with the historic architecture and intimate setting of the Abbey campus, which still centers around the original Benedictine monastery built in 1888.
Some $15 million of the $100 million campaign will go toward a new performing arts center and monastery. The new performing arts center will give The Abbey Players – the oldest performing arts group in North Carolina – a venue that can host between 2,000 to 3,000 people.
Everything centers on monastery
Solari first visited the monastery when he was 4 years old when his brother, James, was a monk at Belmont Abbey. The younger Solari returned in 1974 and stayed.
He says in campaign materials the current monastery, which is home to 11 monks and three others going through the process, is not conducive to community life. The infirmary is inadequate and the rooms are old, he said. The kitchen is two floors, too.
“You could say it’s a great exercise opportunity for the cooks, but it’s not ideal,” he said.
Along with renovations, the existing monastery will be refurbished as classroom and office space.
“Everything begins with the monastic community,” Thierfelder said. “They’ve come here seeking God, and they believe by living and praying and working together in community, they’re going to come to a deeper, more profound love of God. It’s a remarkable vocation and commitment they have made. With this campaign, we want to demonstrate our continued commitment as a college and a community to the work they began so long ago.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2023 at 2:00 PM.
