When people think about cathedral ministry, they often picture worship services, music, outreach programs, and pastoral care. What they may not realize is that behind all of that is a small army of systems, buildings, technologies, and people working together to keep our campus running.
I’m Kathleen Sheehan Burgess, Director of Administrative Operations at St. Paul’s Cathedral. While you may not see me every Sunday, my role involves overseeing many of the behind-the-scenes functions that support our mission, including Accounting, Security, Information Technology, Human Resources, Insurance, Hospitality, and Buildings & Grounds. In short, if it’s not liturgical, it probably lands on my desk at some point!
This week seemed like the perfect time to share a little of the story of our campus and the remarkable transformation that has taken place over the last decade.
When I joined the Cathedral staff in 2015, our city block looked very different. In addition to the Cathedral, Queen’s Courtyard and Great Hall, we had a 23-space parking lot, a 16-unit apartment building, an Administration Building, and a modest courtyard. Fast forward to today, and the campus has been completely reimagined.
Since construction began on the 525 Olive project in 2018, we’ve welcomed significant upgrades and opportunities. The Cathedral partnered in a transformative redevelopment that brought us new property space within the 525 Olive building, 70 parking spaces, and the beautiful Dean’s Courtyard and labyrinth that we now steward alongside our neighbors.
The recently completed Music Center redevelopment project also allowed us to make important improvements to our historic 1928 Great Hall building and Queen’s Courtyard, including weatherproofing, fire-safety upgrades, and accessibility enhancements that will help preserve these beloved spaces for future generations.
The Music Center has now officially launched with the installation of our Music Director, Bruce Neswick. Regular Cathedral choir rehearsals and programming have begun, and the space is already fulfilling its broader vision for community use. Our partner, Voices of Our City Choir, now utilizes the Music Center for performance choir rehearsals on Wednesday mornings, bringing additional life and purpose to this new resource.
One of the most exciting outcomes of the overall campus redevelopment has been the activation of our commercial spaces at Fifth Avenue and Olive Street. Through Nutmeg & Olive LLC, we have successfully leased both storefronts, which are now home to Heavenly Bodega and Eye Eye Optical. These partnerships not only bring life and energy to our corner of Bankers Hill but also create valuable income that supports the Cathedral’s long-term financial sustainability.
Speaking of activity, you may have noticed that our campus feels a bit busier these days.
In 2022, we launched our Rental Revenue Program in response to a challenge from Chapter: make better use of the wonderful spaces we steward at St. Paul’s Cathedral. I led a team of staff and volunteers to identify ten rentable venues across campus, upgrade hospitality amenities, enhance audiovisual capabilities, and invest in furnishings that allow our spaces to serve multiple purposes. We also developed marketing on our website and built the internal systems necessary to support a robust rental program.
The results have exceeded our expectations. Prior to 2022, we had just three regular rental clients generating approximately $600 per month. Today, we welcome more than 100 individual renters annually and have established long-term partnership agreements with 27 organizations, the vast majority of them nonprofit groups serving our community.
These partnerships do more than create revenue. They bring new people through our doors, strengthen our connection to the wider community, and provide opportunities for collaboration that extend well beyond Sunday mornings. Every meeting, concert, reception, workshop, and community gathering reinforces St. Paul’s role as a place of welcome, hospitality, and service.
And while income generation is certainly important, my favorite part is seeing our campus alive with activity. It’s not unusual to walk across campus and find community leaders meeting in the Guild Room, the choir rehearsing in the Music Center, a nonprofit hosting an event in the Great Hall, patrons of Heavenly Bodega enjoying the courtyard, and Cathedral ministries preparing for worship, all at the same time. That’s when our buildings are doing exactly what they were meant to do: supporting ministry, reaching outward, drawing people together, and helping to build God’s kingdom.
At the end of the day, Buildings & Grounds is about much more than maintenance projects, construction updates, or rental agreements. It is about stewarding the physical resources entrusted to us so they can continue supporting the mission of St. Paul’s Cathedral for generations to come.
Thank you for being part of that story.
Great Hall Basement transformation…
