Sr. Kiliana Jacobowski wrote: "Since it had been decided that the U.S. motherhouse and novitiate should be connected to St. Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield, Wisconsin, Mother M. Johanna and her council seriously considered erecting a convent for a congregational facility for the administration, study and formation of novices.” St Mary's Convent, as the building that included the southeast wing of the hospital, was started in 1907 and was finished in 1908 at a cost of $50,000. On February 2, 1908 - the seventeenth anniversary of Mother Frances and the other sisters’ moving from the rented house to the first new building at St Joseph's Hospital - the sisters moved into their American mother house.