A local resident walks along the newly-renovated Sacred Heart-shaped path in the front yard of Providence Academy in Vancouver, Wash., on Nov. 29, 2025.
Winston Szeto / OPB
To many people living in Vancouver, Washington, the historic Providence Academy in downtown is an iconic part of the landscape and has long served the community.
Established in 1873, the French colonial-style red-brick building was once an orphanage, a school and the regional headquarters of the Sisters of Providence — a group of Catholic nuns who had arrived from Montreal, Canada, two decades prior and helped shape the early social services of the Pacific Northwest.
The jewel of the Academy’s campus is its 28,000-square-foot front plaza, where a Sacred Heart-shaped pathway leads to the main entrance. Designed by Mother Joseph, the leader of the Sisters of Providence, this landmark has evolved over time — featuring arbors, fruit trees and even a fountain at various points in its history.
The front yard of the Providence Academy, circa 1910, where a fountain is situated at the center of the heart-shaped path.
Courtesy of Providence Archives, Seattle, Image 22.A2.3
After the school permanently closed in 1966, descendants of Vancouver-based mason Lowell Hidden purchased the Academy and transformed it into office spaces and restaurants. But after the family sold the property in 2011, the Academy’s front yard has not been improved for more than a decade.
“It was grass and gravel and a couple of large, scary dying trees, and it made the place look empty — it made it sort of [a] spooky old building in a downtown that … is growing and changing,” said CEO Temple Lentz of the Historic Trust, the preservation nonprofit that bought the Academy in 2015 and now houses office and event spaces within the building. The organization has also managed about 40 city-owned historic Officers Row homes at Fort Vancouver since 2006.
An aerial view of Sister Marguerite D'Amours gardening at Providence Academy's front yard in Vancouver, Wash., in 1961.
Courtesy of Providence Archives, Seattle, Image SP4283.45
Over the past three years, the Historic Trust has spent more than $2 million designing and constructing the Sacred Heart Plaza in the Academy’s front yard, hoping to bring the Providence Academy campus back into the heart of the community.
“We want to welcome people in,” Lentz said. “We see our ownership of it as continuing the tradition of having this building and all that it represents here for the community.”
The plaza, which officially opens on Dec. 5, features two main parts:
- The lightly improved Sacred Heart-shaped path, originally designed by Mother Joseph.
- A newly constructed three-tiered plaza on the west side, built on land formerly used for gardens, a playground, a tennis court and several restaurants.
The entire site now includes gathering spaces, seating areas, lighting and plantings designed to be in bloom nearly year-round.
Undated recent photo of the new Sacred Heart Plaza, with the Vancouver Community Library in the background.
Courtesy of the Historic Trust
Born Esther Pariseau in Quebec in 1823, Mother Joseph was trained in practical crafts like carpentry and sewing.
According to the Providence Archives, she oversaw the design, site selection, financing and construction of many of the order’s approximately 30 buildings across the Northwest.
Providence Academy is one of the few that still exist.
Undated portrait of Mother Joseph wearing her habit and a cross strung on thick cord.
Courtesy of Clark County Historical Museum
Lentz said the Historic Trust designed the Sacred Heart Plaza using archived photos from the early 20th century and written records from Mother Joseph about the heart-shaped path, despite the lack of complete original plans.
She described Mother Joseph as a “formidable,” six-foot-tall woman.
“She was French Canadian and spoke no English, [but] that didn’t stop her from getting anything done,” Lentz said. “She would walk around and actually had a hammer hanging out of her habit. She would take time to fix things.”
Lentz added that Mother Joseph crafted the woodwork on several pews in the Academy’s chapel.
Since 2015, the Historic Trust has invested more than $16 million to preserve the chapel and other parts of the building. Future plans include installing an ADA-compliant elevator to make the three-story structure more accessible.
On Friday from 4 to 8 p.m., the Historic Trust will host a celebration marking the completion of the plaza, with a live ice sculpture carving demonstration and free hot cocoa outdoors.
Visitors are also invited to explore the chapel inside, where docents will explain Mother Joseph’s legacy.
Lentz hopes visitors will feel the connection to these historic spaces.
“History happens every day, and so those of us who are enjoying the plaza on Friday are a part of making history.”
