By SALINA POST
Saint Francis Ministries announced Thursday that it has finalized the sale of its E. Elm Street offices to CKF Addiction Treatment.
The building at 509 E. Elm Street served as Saint Francis Ministries’ corporate headquarters from 1959 to 2018. Saint Francis Ministries then moved its corporate offices to the Otis Avenue campus (the former St. John's Military School), however the Elm Street building and white modular buildings behind continued to house the ministry’s Out-of-Home/Permanency Case Management, Adoption, Outpatient Behavioral Health, and Prevention Services, Saint Francis Ministries noted in a news release.
The main brick building was formerly Dunbar School, a school for Black Salina students until the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision in 1954 declared that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
Dunbar School closed in 1959 and was purchased "by what was at the time called 'The Saint Francis Academy' to serve as its corporate office. Founder and President Rev. Robert Mize Jr. retired that same year from Saint Francis, but the building remained the organization’s headquarters until it moved to the campus of the former St. John’s Military School at 110 W. Otis Avenue in Salina," Saint Francis Ministries noted in a news release.
Saint Francis Ministries has begun a phased transfer of offices and staff from the Elm Street location to Jack Vanier Hall on the Otis Avenue campus. The organization plans to be fully moved by June.
CKF Addiction Treatment plans to use the buildings purchased from Saint Francis Ministries for its women's intensive outpatient treatment program.