BONUS: Here is a panoramic view of the Mount’s April 26, 2024, centennial Group Hug photo.

(Click and click again to enlarge photos)

Published in The Seattle Times online on April 11, 2024
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on April 14, 2024

Presiding over West Seattle,
the Mount’s heart has beaten for 100 years

By Clay Eals

Not for nothing is it known as the Mount.

Perched on one of Seattle’s highest hills is Providence Mount St. Vincent care center. Its promontory along 35th Avenue Southwest oversees northern West Seattle and boasts a commanding view of downtown.

Likewise, though its 9.3 acres are walled off from much of the surrounding streetscape, the Mount holds a reputation and presence as warm as it is lofty.

Anyone who’s lived long in West Seattle probably has known of an elder family member or friend among its 800 yearly rehab patients or 175 others living final chapters under skilled nursing care. Toss in 109 apartments, a 100-child daycare, 200 volunteers and 487 staff from varying ethnicities, and you get an influential chunk of the community’s foundation.

That, of course, derives from longevity. The Mount building marks its centennial April 26, with a morning-to-evening rededication 100 years to the day since the first such public ceremony.

Initially women-driven, the non-sectarian center took root in Catholicism long before 1924. Its founding Sisters of Providence organized in the 1830s in Montreal. In 1858, they launched the first Pacific Northwest hospital, at Fort Vancouver. World War I interrupted plans in 1914 to expand to Seattle, but 10 years later saw the opening of the bluff-topped, dark-bricked, five-story complex, then called the St. Vincent Home for the Aged.

“A woman who gives her life to care for the old is as much a patriot as the soldier who gives his life on the field of battle,” Acting Gov. William Coyle said in praising founders at the dedication. “Your service is as great in peace as in war.”

Seen from above, the Mount’s layout forms an “H,” certainly symbolic of health. At its core, like a rudder, is a grand chapel. As times evolved, so did the institution’s name, services, staffing and outer face (a major mid-1960s rebuild and additional St. Joseph Residence gave it softer tones of tan and brown).

A high point came in 2015 when NBC “Today” showcased the Mount’s innovative Intergenerational Learning Center, pairing seniors with preschoolers, starting in 1991. The clasped hands and blended voices of old and young tugged at televised heartstrings.

Actually, the Mount’s centennial saga could generate at least 100 such heartwarming stories. One could be culled from 1974, when caregivers urged a resident in her 80s to keep moving to stay young in spirit. But she resolutely asserted she was too old for yoga classes: “I’m not going to stand on my head at my age.”

No wonder. She might not have been able to enjoy the view.

WEB EXTRAS

Thanks to Molly Swain and Veronica Couto of Providence Mount St. Vincent and Cynthia Flash of Flash Media Services for their invaluable help with this installment!

To see Clay Eals’ 360-degree video of the “Now” prospect and compare it with the “Then” photos, and to hear this column read aloud by Clay, check out our Seattle Now & Then 360 version of the column.

You also will find a commemorative booklet, 10 additional photos (including several then/now pairs submitted by the Mount) and, in chronological order, 29 historical clips from The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer online archive (available via Seattle Public Library), Newspapers.com and Washington Digital Newspapers, that were helpful in the preparation of this column.