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In Our View: Preserving A Treasure

Trust's acquisition of The Academy bodes well for future generations

The Columbian
Published: December 29, 2014, 4:00pm

Visitors to Washington, D.C., may know the U.S. Capitol is home to the National Statuary Hall, a place where every state has a chance to display two images depicting their greatest Americans. You can see images of Samuel Adams, Henry Clay, Robert E. Lee and even Hawaii’s King Kamehameha I.

Washington’s statues depict Eastern Washington missionary Marcus Whitman and Vancouver’s own Mother Joseph. Mother Joseph, who can be found just to the right of the tour ticket counter in the Capitol Visitor’s Center, is notably one of the few women in the collection, and, unlike the towering figures near her, is depicted humbly kneeling in prayer. Clearly visible at the base of the sculpture is an image of The Academy, one of the courageous Catholic nun’s greatest accomplishments.

Among Washington’s oldest buildings, The Academy still stands at 400 E. Evergreen Blvd., across the street from a newer landmark, the Vancouver Community Library. It opened in 1873 — 15 years before Washington became a state — as a school and orphanage, and as the permanent home of the Sisters of Providence.

It was Mother Joseph herself who designed the stately structure and oversaw its construction.

For the last 46 years The Academy has been owned and preserved by brothers Bill, Oliver and Monte Hidden, the sons of a pioneering Southwest Washington family that provided bricks for the three-story building.

Now thanks to a fundraising campaign, the Academy is set to enter a new phase. The Hiddens have sold the building to the nonprofit Fort Vancouver National Trust, and the plan is for the Hidden family to sell the surrounding associated property, including the former laundry and boiler buildings, to the trust at a future date.

Though the purchase price was not disclosed, the trust announced in 2012 it was trying to raise $16 million to cover The Academy’s purchase and preservation. One of the major donors has been philanthropist Ed Lynch, who summed it up this way: “It’s a treasure in the middle of town.”

We hope that the treasure will be shared more widely under the trust’s ownership.

For the immediate future, the property will be used mostly as it has been. A Mexican restaurant leases one of the outbuildings, which was added after Mother Joseph’s time. The main building, which will need a new roof in the next few years, is mostly given over to rental office space. The old chapel on the east end of the building is a very popular wedding venue.

Soon the trust plans to put together a development plan. Clark College is testing the waters to see whether the community is interested in a student-operated restaurant and brewery at The Academy. The restaurant and brewery would open in two key outbuildings on The Academy campus: the laundry room and boiler room. The brewery plan would be expensive, however, with as much as $15 million needed.

A plan to add a public garden called Lynch Square, named for Lynch and his late wife, Dollie, is also in the works.

Because the fundraising, the property acquisition and the planning is still incomplete, it’s impossible to know exactly what will be happening at this historic location in the next few years. Given the trust’s stewardship, there’s reason to believe that on the Academy’s 150th anniversary in 2023, the “treasure in the middle of town” will also be a treasure in the hearts of the community.

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