TOLEDO — Walking through the halls of what used to be the St. Mary’s Academy, Grace Elder reminisced about what it was like to go to school in what used to be the all-girls Catholic boarding school.
“It was wonderful,” Elder said. “It was like one long slumber party with school thrown in.”
The 1962 graduate drove two hours from Issaquah to see what the renovated building looked like, it will now serve a new purpose as a senior center for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe.
“It’s not a regular school you went to, because you lived there. It’s like going home,” Elder said. “I think it’s wonderful, it’s a good use of the building. Boarding schools aren’t so popular anymore.”
Teri Deras, 60, will soon call the St. Mary’s facility home as well. Deras was canvassing the halls of one of the remodeled buildings trying to pick out her new room.
“I’m Cowlitz, and I want to live with my people,” said Deras, who will relocate to Toledo from North Bonneville, just east of Portland. “It defines who I am, and it defines my roots and where I’m from.”
Larry Coyle, executive director of housing for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, said this will not only offer a place for Cowlitz Indian Tribe members to reunite, but the housing will fill a void in the Cowlitz community.
“It means we’ll have housing for our senior members of the tribe,” Coyle said. “It’s real important, we’ve got some people who are homeless.”
The center will offer 32 units, but can accommodate just over 50.
Sheryl Bertucci, deputy director of housing for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, said about 15 people are on the waiting list. Coyle said the number should grow once word gets out about the new center.
In the works since 2001, the Cowlitz tribe purchased the building for $1 million from the Sisters of St. Francis and spent about $5 million to upgrade and add heating, electricity, and cable television hookups, among other things.
The original St. Francis Xavier Mission was the first permanently established mission in the state. It served early settlers and aimed to convert American Indians to Christianity.
“We originally owned this land,” Coyle said.
“We donated it to the Catholic Church in the 1800s, so we’re more or less repossessing it.”
Marqise Allen: (360) 807-8237
