The new housing development being built by the old Anne Hutchinson school is being named after Ade Bethune. I remember Ade as a liturgical artist. She had the St. Leo’s shop out of her home on Washington Street in Newport. I went there to buy some things and what sticks out in my memory is that her coffee table was her wooden coffin! She designed jewelry and liturgical objects under the name of the Terra Sancta Guild. I still have some of those pieces.

Why would you name senior housing after Ade? Ade founded The Church Community Housing Corporation (CCHC), in 1969. The CCHC has the lease from the Town of Portsmouth to build a senior housing development.

Ade (Adelaide De Bethune) was born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1914. Ade and her family emigrated to New York City in 1928. In 1933 she met Dorothy Day at a place were the poor were being fed. Ade thought the illustrations in Dorothy’s newspaper The Catholic Worker, could use some help and she volunteered to do it. In my library I own a book on Dorothy Day and Ade was the illustrator. This early experience led Ade to focus on liturgical art and architecture which were rooted in the Catholic faith. Ade Bethune wanted her artistic gifts to be of service to others.

In 1938 Bethune moved to Newport, Rhode Island. Ade thought that home ownership was important to giving people a sense of belonging to a community. Throughout the years Ade was a vocal critic of efforts to tear down existing housing in Newport. She and a group of concerned citizens created the Church Community Corporation in 1969 (later the Church Community Housing Corporation or CCHC). This organization worked through renovation and new construction to enable low-income residents to find a home. In the 1980s Ade worked to develop Harbor House on Washington Street for elder housing. She was one of the first residents in 2002, but died shortly after. She is buried at Portsmouth Abbey in the monastery’s burial grounds.

Illustration from the Dorothy Day Book

To learn more about Ade – I would recommend these sites:

Portsmouth Abbey: https://portsmouthabbeymonastery.org/ade-bethune-artist-and-oblate

St. Catherine University has her papers: https://library.stkate.edu/archives/bethunechronology

CCHC