The sick and dying once prayed in the Gothic chapel Professor Ricardo Ortiz calls home.
Tucked away on the fifth floor of LXR Hall, Ortiz lives a quiet existence in what was once the chapel of Georgetown University Hospital. LXR housed a wing of the hospital, which was administered at the time by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Francis, until 1947.
Two hallways lined with golden stained glass windows, as well as the cupola rising from the ceiling of the largest room, are a testament to the apartment’s former function. Around sunset, Ortiz said, his home simply glows.
“It’s a really unique space,” Ortiz said. “It tends to impress people.”
The resident faculty apartment Ortiz has occupied for the last year and a half is one of five on campus. Three are located in the Southwest Quad and one is in Copley Hall.
LXR’s resident faculty apartment was the first to open.
When LXR was renovated in 1994, the number of dorm beds in the complex tripled.
Maintaining an active chapel in such a large dormitory created complications, Vice President of Facilities and Student Housing Karen Frank said. “It became a security issue to have people walking through the entire residence hall to get to the chapel,” she explained.
Turning the chapel into a private residence solved the problem. The space was refurbished and outfitted for daily living.
“As we developed these faculty apartments, we tried to make them less institutional and more homelike,” Frank said. “The same furniture I’d buy for my house, I buy for the apartments.”
Additionally, most of the chapel’s religious iconography was removed, University Archivist Lynn Conway said.
Ortiz, a professor of U.S. Latino Studies in the English department, won the apartment after a lengthy application process. Initially, he admitted, he was not overjoyed with the place, having expected something a little more standard.
“It’s really too big for one person,” he said.
For the most part, however the pluses outweigh the downsides.
“The commute is perfect,” Ortiz said. “My life became logistically a lot easier.”
The chapel is no longer used for religious services, but Ortiz welcomes student programs, religious or not, to make use of his home. The Student of Color Alliance and MECHA have both used the space for meetings, he said.
During the 2004 presidential election, the professor invited all of LXR Hall to the apartment to watch the outcome.
Faculty-in-Residence enjoy their living comforts rent free, a definite perk for Ortiz.
“It’s probably the only time I’ll ever be able to afford to live in Georgetown,” he said.
