Mt. Alvernia property in Millvale sold by Sisters of St. Francis

The Millvale property that a congregation of Franciscan sisters has called home for more than 115 years has been sold to a developer who plans to convert the site into an assisted living facility.

The Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities said that they reached an agreement to sell the 25-acre property, which includes six buildings, to RNS Reality of New York. Terms ofthe sale were not disclosed.

The campus that once housed Mount Alvernia High School, a girls’ school that closed in 2011, includes a convent, a commercial kitchen, and a chapel that can accommodate 300 people. Although the convent has room for 300 nuns, fewer than 70 live there now, according to Rochelle Cassella, congregational directorof communications.

The sisters have been in Pittsburgh since 1865, when three Franciscan nuns arrived from Buffalo, N.Y., to open a hospital for immigrants. As the

congregation grew in size, it opened hospitals, ran volunteer programs and operated the high school for 75 years.

At its peak in the late 1950s and early 1960s, more than 50 sisters joined the congregation each year.

However, the emergence of new opportunities for women affiliated with the religious order — such as the chance to minister and to live independently — has led to a decline in the number choosing to reside at the convent. The shrinking and aging membership also has disrupted the congregation’s financial model: Historically, the sisters worked and earned stipends that supported the order’s activities.

As a result, the sisters, who have a presence across the country extending as far as Hawaii, have sold several properties, particularly in central and upstate New York.

RNS Realty will announce more detailed plans for the new care home once the sale is finalized later this year, Ms. Cassella said.

It was not immediately clear what the development may mean for the borough of Millvale. The property and the buildings have an assessed value of about $9 million. Millvale officials could not be reached for comment.

For the sisters, the move into an aged care home represents a change of scene — but certainly not a change of mission.

“These women have lived most of their lives at the convent, alongside other sisters,” Ms. Cassella said. “A lot of them are very excited that they’ll now be living with laypeople, sharing the Gospel and telling other people about who they are and what they believe in.”