Every day, a page in Northwest pioneering history is visible to tens of thousands of motorists cruising through Vancouver on Interstate 5.

The clue is the towering brick smokestack, southwest of I-5 and Mill Plain Boulevard, emblazoned with the white letters, "ACADEMY."

The smokestack is part of the original Providence Academy, a boarding school for girls opened in 1874.

At that time, the three-story Catholic school -- which covers two of the property's seven acres -- was the largest building north of San Francisco.

Today, renovated rooms in The Academy, at 400 E. Evergreen Blvd., are leased to 52 businesses, including lawyers, appraisers, a wedding service and a restaurant, R.P. McMurphey's.

Next to The Academy is another restaurant, El Presidente.

Inside The Academy, its three-story chapel and its 5,000-square-foot ballroom are rented for weddings and other functions.

A walk through the massive brick building is a walk back in history. Over the front door is the date 1873, which is the year construction started. The circular driveway in front actually is shaped like a heart. Everywhere are links to the building's past. The original carved, heavy oak handrails in the stairwells. The wavy glass in the windows. The transoms over office doors. The high ceilings. The nostalgic squeaks in the maple flooring.

When the school was open, the nuns didn't mind the creaking floor because it helped them keep tabs on students.

"From what I understand, the nuns knew when the kids were up (at night) because the floor was creaking," building manager John Bergquam said.

Most impressive is the building's three-story-high chapel, which has a few of its original pews. Imagine the prayers and hopes of the people who sat in those pews.

Bergquam has some hopes, too. He hopes that as The Academy approaches its 125th anniversary in two years, the Vancouver City Council's plans for downtown redevelopment -- such as adding a theater complex and apartment buildings -- will mean more business for The Academy's tenants.

North of the school is the boarded-up boiler building. Pumps supplied the water to the boilers, which converted the water into steam for heat.

The boiler room's steam also heated the old St. Joseph's Hospital, which stood on the land now occupied by Shiloh Inn.

Currently, there are no plans for the boiler building.

"There's been everything planned from renovation, but that's very expensive, to tearing it down and somebody putting another office building on that corner," Bergquam said.

The Academy is a strong link to Vancouver's pioneer past. When it opened, Ulysses S. Grant was in the White House, Washington would be a territory for another 15 years, and farmers and ranchers were starting to use a new product called barbed wire to carve up the West.

Connected to the former boarding school's past, as well as its future, is Vancouver's Hidden family. Lowell M. Hidden, a Vermont native, made the bricks for The Academy at the request of Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart , a religious missionary.

That agreement marked a historical starting point for two Vancouver enterprises: it gave Mother Joseph the bricks she needed for the school, and it was a major boost for a brick business started in 1871 and still owned and managed by the Hidden family.

Today, because she was instrumental in the construction of 11 hospitals, two orphanages, five Indian schools and seven academies, Mother Joseph is considered the Northwest's first architect. A statue in her honor was erected in 1977 in the National Statuary Hall of Fame in Washington, D.C.

And members of the Hidden family have earned their place in local history, too. They played key roles in the organization of the area's first railroad; developed what became Vancouver's biggest hotel; and relocated to Esther Park a Victorian house that today is known as Slocum House, which is home to community theater.

But one of the Hidden family's most ambitious achievements was rescuing The Academy from the wrecking ball in 1968. The school closed in 1966 with a final class of 28.

The Hiddens paid $900,000 for the school and the adjacent St. Joseph's Hospital. The hospital later was demolished to make room for a hotel and a restaurant.

As old as the former boarding school is, Bergquam -- who has been managing the building since 1989 -- is unaware of any lingering spirits of the nuns, students or others who spent part of their lives there.

"I've been here eight or nine years and in that time I haven't had anything unusual happen," he said.

What has happened, though, is equally interesting.

"I get a lot of people who've gone to school here," Bergquam said. "I get nuns who are retired and want to come back through and look. I hear a lot of stories.

"I had a guy who was from eastern Oregon come by. People come in and this brings a lot of memories back to them."