Esther Pariseau built hospitals, schools, orphanages for the poor
To mark Canada’s 150th birthday, we are counting down to Canada Day with profiles of 150 noteworthy British Columbians.
Esther Pariseau was B.C.’s first female architect, although her commitment to plumb bob and carpenter’s square was a means to an end. Her real mission as Mother Joseph du Sacré-Coeur of the Sisters of Providence was to serve the Kingdom of Heaven — building the earthly structures required to care for the sick and alleviate ignorance and poverty.
Over 45 years, says women’s historian Merna Forster, she designed and built more than 30 hospitals, schools, orphanages and libraries across B.C., Washington, Montana, Idaho and Oregon. She displayed, said Roman Catholic leaders, “the kind of lofty ideas, the kind of fertile inspirations that are the mark of genius: never-ending work, incalculable sacrifices, vast undertakings, nothing was too much for her energy and her generous initiative.”
Born to Joseph Pariseau and Françoise Rousseau on April 16, 1823, at Laval, Lower Canada, her father was a carriage maker. As a child, she learned his skills. Her mother tutored her in the wifely domestic skills of weaving, cooking and embroidery. But the day after Christmas 1843, she joined the Sisters of Charity of Providence, a new order devoted to providing health care, education, child care and services to the poor.
In 1856, she was sent to Fort Niqually, Wash. Two months after arriving, she had built a convent and school and was taking in orphaned children. Sisters cared for the sick, elderly and mentally incapacitated in their own homes. In 1858, just as the Fraser River gold rush began, she opened a hospital.
In 1866, she was asked to build similar missions across the Canadian and American northwest, but there was a catch. She had to raise the funds. She organized “begging missions,” promising miners their donations ensured future access to health care should they ever need it. Some argue her idea was the genesis of medicare.
In 1873, she built the Académie de la Providence in Vancouver, then St. Mary’s Hospital in New Westminster in 1886, then a 25-bed St. Paul’s Hospital for Vancouver in 1894. Even in her late 70s, she could be seen in her black habit, climbing ladders to scrutinize construction work on her buildings — and ordering corrections.
She died of cancer in Vancouver, Wash., on Jan. 19, 1902. Her legacy endures. Our own St. Paul’s Hospital is today a teaching hospital particularly famous for its innovative work in treating HIV/AIDS and its tireless service to the city’s poorest communities.