St Francis Center for Renewal

A lovely, pastoral retreat center run by incredibly friendly and accommodating nuns. Beautiful grounds with wide open lawns rolling down to the Monocacy Creek. Fair warning: lots of crosses, statues, paintings etc. of Christ, the Virgin Mary, various saints (esp. St. Francis). If you’re Catholic (our group wasn’t) or you’re not too bothered by all that, then this is a nice place to have a retreat, or probably even a wedding.
The rooms were quiet and very comfortable, with two beds and a sink in each. Avoid the south-​facing rooms in the summertime if you’re sensitive to sound: the building’s AC unit, in the south parking lot is very noisy. The shared bathrooms were very clean.
A good range of comfortable, carpeted, small to mid-​sized break-​out rooms including chapels, a small library with a computer, a TV room with a video library. Wireless access throughout.
The whole place felt warm and cozy, even though it’s a 1950’s style square brick building. The main manor building next door is far more architecturally interesting: the original old summer mansion built by a Bethlehem Steel magnate.
The dining hall is run by an outside food service. Those folks are also very friendly and they tried really hard to be accommodating. The menu tended to be a bit simple, and heavy on the carbs and eggs, with very little vegetable protein. They did make tofu and other special request meals. If folks in your event don’t eat meat, dairy, eggs, gluten, some combination of those, or have any other dietary preferences/​restrictions/​needs, bring your own food to supplement, or see if you can give them complete recipes in advance.
Lots of birds and wildlife, esp. catbirds, robins, jays, deer and groundhogs, and some of the most amazing firefly displays I’ve ever seen. There was also a beaver and a muskrat in the creek. Railroad tracks across the creek seem to be used by trains less than once a day, and make for great walking if you can walk the tracks, and are really the only way to stroll along the creek, or through the small fragment patches of woods.
Note: Google, Yahoo and some other services (including Unilocal,initially, but not mapquest) incorrectly put this on the wrong end of Bridle Path Rd. St. Francis is on he south side of where the Monocacy Creek flows under Bridle Path Rd., WEST of Center St. (turn RIGHT if coming down Center St. from Rt. 22).