The Jesuits Build a College on Broadway
In 1894, Seattle's Jesuit fathers secured a block at Broadway and Madison for a new church and school, brought in two priests from St. Louis, and set fall classes for September 4.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Jesuit Fathers of the Immaculate Conception church have had their numbers increased by two who will assist in teaching this fall and winter, namely: Rev. Patrick Mahoney, S.J., and Rev. Conrad Bruster, S.J., both from the University of St. Louis, Mo. Father Victor Garrand, the principal of the church and school, is supervising the construction of a new church on a block of land secured by the Jesuits, bounded by Broadway, Madison, Williams, Knight and Filbert streets. The old Pay Nursery building was purchased with the land, and this the Jesuits will devote to the primary department of the school and place it in charge of the Sisters who have been teaching at Sixth and Spring streets. The new building will be large enough to afford ample room for college purposes, in which advanced pupils will be taught the classics and commercial subjects by the Jesuit Fathers. The fall term will commence September 4.
“The new building will be large enough to afford ample room for college purposes, in which advanced pupils will be taught the classics and commercial by the Jesuit Fathers.”
The item reads like routine parish news, but it catches Seattle building institutions block by block in the 1890s. The Jesuit presence described here became part of the city's long Catholic educational landscape, and the Broadway-and-Madison corner remains a recognizable reminder that today's campuses and parishes began as land purchases and fall-term notices.
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