The Catholic NW Progress article on purchse of the Villa Campus
SEATTLE
Villa Academy purchases campus
Villa Academy has purchased its historic buildings and eight acres of the 26-acre property from the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, the school announced this week.
The 400-student, independent Catholic school, which offers preschool through eighth grade, has been leasing the site from the sisters since 1977.
Five years in the making, the purchase agreement included securing approval from the Vatican in 2005, said school spokeswoman Nicole Chism Griffin.
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, first American saint, founded what is now Villa Academy in 1903 when she and her sisters opened an orphanage and school in 1903 on Beacon Hill, moving it to its current site on a hill in Laurelhurst in 1914 after the future saint envisioned a “villa on a hill.”
The two historic, brick-clad buildings now used by the academy were designed by noted architect John Graham, Sr. and built in 1924.
The sisters closed the orphanage in 1951 but continued operating the school as Sacred Heart Villa until the mid-1970s when it was turned over to an independent lay board of trustees.
With this week’s purchase agreement, the sisters will continue to own the remaining 18 acres, leasing it to the academy.
