What ever happened to the glass windows at Providence Heights?

Issaquah residents rallied to preserve the enormous, colored glass windows in the Providence Heights College of Sister Formation chapel — a work of art and a community treasure — and saved them from the building’s eventual demolition. The windows were given, along with the chapel’s Stations of the Cross, to the Sisters of Providence, who will look for a new home for them.

Background

In Issaquah, the Providence Heights property has been a topic of debate for years.

Today, the location is owned by the Issaquah School District and the city council must decide whether to rezone the property to allow for a high school, elementary school and football stadium to be built there. That vote is expected to take place Jan. 21.

Providence Point, the neighborhood adjacent to the property, has been fighting the potential rezone — not wanting resulting traffic and noise — and had appealed a city issued State Environmental Policy Act determination of nonsignificance for the environmental impacts of rezoning eight parcels. But, in a quasi-judicial hearing, the city council denied that appeal and upheld the city’s determination, thus moving forward to the next question: To rezone or not to rezone?

But before the recent debate (will schools and sports fields be built there? If so, how many?) the questions were different.

For years, the original buildings there, that were once a school for sisters in formation (young women entering the Sisters of Providence), were in question. Community group Preserve Providence Heights was born, petitioning to protect the historic building and its colorful windows. The city would make the chapel a landmark in July 2017, but that designation was removed the following September.

Ultimately, when the city issued the demolition permit, it was contingent on the windows being safely removed and given to the sisters, who now have the windows safely in storage. The chapel building was demolished in September 2018.

The windows were created specifically for the sisters in 1957 by late French artist Gabriel Loire, designed with faceted glass made by setting one-inch thick pieces of glass into concrete. The glass pieces are technically not stained, but rather colored all the way through. Each segment is heavy.

The technique to create the art is uncommon — each piece of glass is different, intentionally chipped, partially broken, rounded, varying in thickness, and held together by a resin, thus creating a screen, refracting the light and creating a deeper range of colors.

Sisters

Sister Judith Desmarais, Sisters of Providence Provincial Leader, explained the windows’ significance, symbolism and beauty. Desmarais lived at Providence Heights for five years when she was a sister in formation and was a student there.

Desmarais has been the provincial leader for seven years and was a counselor for three years before that. At the end of 2019, her term comes to an end and there will be a new leader appointed.

She said they had a few people inquire about the glass right around the time of the building’s demolishment when the issue was a hot topic, but nobody has asked about the windows since then. At that point, she said people mostly expressed interest in obtaining one piece of the glass or the Stations because it would be so much easier than taking the whole collection.

“All of us that were there really loved the windows and the Stations of the Cross, and we used them certainly for prayer, and we used them just for the beauty of what they meant to us because they were depicting scenes that are important to us in our religious community,” Desmarais said. “So they’ve always been special to us.”

The college was an inter-congregational effort to promote college education for sisters, enhancing the professional lives of religious women. It was one of the only institutions in the country designed for that purpose at that time, and focused on educating the whole woman, more than just spiritually.

The campus included classrooms, administrative offices, dormitories, an auditorium, a cafeteria, a library, a pool, a gym and the chapel.

The school opened in 1961 and Desmarais entered in 1962. While learning how to be a sister, the students there also underwent a variety of other training and all received a college degree from Seattle University. The school closed in 1969 due to a decline in the number of young women entering the religion.

Loretta Greene, archivist for the Sisters of Providence, said when the sunlight hit the chapel windows it would have projected colorful, refracted light all around for quite a stunning view. Plus, in addition to the colored glass and the Stations of the Cross were other pieces of art inside Providence Heights. It all aligned well with a goal of inspiring the young sisters.

“That was part of the education philosophy of appreciating the arts and educating the whole woman,” Greene said. “The beauty of the art was to inspire the sisters spiritually and clearly those windows did it — and the Stations — but clearly the windows did it.

“When you were in that chapel… the colors just bounced all over the walls and it was quite inspirational. So it did do the intent to provide a spiritual inspiration for the young sisters,” she said.

Desmarais said she enjoyed her life there, attending classes, hiking in the woods, using the swimming pool, attending Mass in the chapel every day. She also said they had an excellent cook. Much of their life involved spending time in the chapel and seeing the windows.

“It was our home,” she said.

After the closure

For a few years after the school closed the sisters would still have conferences and meetings there sometimes, and people loved the atmosphere. But the property sold in 1975, a transaction finalized in 1979.

It would exchange hands a few times before being bought by the school district.

Greene explained that they have kept a record of the history of the property, the buildings, the ministry there, the debate of what would happen to the buildings, and even the discussions now surrounding the future of the property.

Peter Schmid is the visual resources archivist who is in charge of all visual resources including still photography and films. He said the Providence Heights collection is a fairly significant one. He also edits the sisters’ newsletter.

Greene and Schmid said people on all sides of the debate over the fate of the property contacted them and used their history and images.

“Both groups came to the archives for information and we served both of them,” Greene said.

Desmarais said that during that time she watched from afar and the Sisters remained neutral. She said they had not been concerned over the building but just wanted the glass windows, as well as the Stations of the Cross, to be preserved.

The 14 Stations of the Cross depict key points leading up to the end of Jesus’s life and Desmarais said these are typically displayed inside Catholic churches. The Stations from the Providence Heights chapel are mosaic, made by Loire in 1959, and the Sisters have those safely in storage as well. They are about 36 inches wide by 18 inches high.

“Our only interest was, if possible, to save the windows and the Stations of the Cross, and with the help of the health system (Providence Health), we were able to do that. But we weren’t for or against anything related to the building itself,” she said. “I wasn’t attached to the building as a building, you know. Certainly it was a beautiful building, but it had served its time, and the art that was there is what we were interested in.”

To a good home

Today, the windows and the stations are available at no cost, but the acquirer would be responsible for handling and funding the transportation, reassembly and installation of the windows.

The removal of the windows was no easy task. It was handled by Nicholas Frei of Emil Frei & Associates Inc., a company based in St. Louis but originally from Germany and started by Frei’s grandfather.

Providence St. Joseph helped the sisters cover the cost of working with the company to disassemble and pack up the windows.

There are 14 windows altogether, seven were on each side of the chapel. Each is 33 feet high and 8-10 feet wide at the base.

They are also each made of 38 segments. That means each of the 14 windows had to be taken apart and more than 500 segments all had to be packaged into wooden crates, numbered and catalogued properly so they can one day be reassembled correctly.

Plus, on one side of the chapel, the windows were high off the ground because the building had its floor elevated on one side and lower on the other, but the windows remained straight across from each other.

It turns out the windows were in good condition, even though they’d been there for 60 years and some had been weather facing.

Windows aren’t made like that anymore. Greene said the method had “fell out of favor” because they’re so heavy.

Schmid said the company enjoyed the project because they’d never gotten to take apart a Loire window before and learning how to reverse engineer it was fascinating to them.

“Nicholas Frei was just thrilled because they were learning something that they could never learn anywhere else,” Schmid said.

But who?

Desmarais said they don’t have any particular qualities they are looking for as far as who they would give the windows to. They have yet to establish those, or the promotional materials to advertise for the adoption of the glass. It’s something they’re working on.

They do want all of the pieces to stay together if possible, especially the seven windows depicting the Seven Sorrows of Mary that together tell a story significant of the Catholic Church, Desmarais said. The Seven Corporal Works of Mercy, however, are not quite as important to keep together and those windows’ stories could stand alone.

Schmid brought up the point that one needs to be able to step back and look at the enormity of each window in order to see the whole picture. That, and the size of the windows alone, means their future home would need to be a large space.

“So the question is, who is building a building of that magnitude today?” Greene said.

Desmarais mentioned that the health system is working on building a new hospital somewhere, so maybe if they have a chapel or something inside they might want one of the windows.

“We have (the windows). They’re still in our possession. But we haven’t really promoted the fact that they’re there,” she said.

The group hopes that someday the windows will end up somewhere where people can enjoy the beauty and see the sunlight shining in and projecting all the colors, just like Desmarais once experienced at Providence Heights.

They hope someone will reach out, wanting to give the artwork a new home. More information about the Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province, can be found online at sistersofprovidence.net.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article misspelled Mother Joseph Province.

A lift used by workers to remove glass segments from the windows inside the Providence Heights College chapel. Photo courtesy of Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province

The Providence Heights College chapel window depicting the Prophecy of Simeon, one of the Seven Sorrows of Mary. Courtesy of Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province.

Nicholas Frei holds up a segment of one of the Providence Heights College chapel’s 14 windows. Each window has 38 segments, so more than 500 segments had to be deconstructed, packaged and catalogued. Courtesy of Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province.

Inside the Providence Heights Chapel, the seven windows depicting the Seven Sorrows of Mary. Courtesy of Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province.

Inside the Providence Heights Chapel, the seven windows depicting the Seven Sorrows of Mary. Courtesy of Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province.

Inside the Providence Heights Chapel, the seven windows depicting the Seven Sorrows of Mary. Courtesy of Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province.