Welcome to MoJo's Boutique. Interested in local history? You're in the right place!

Hi, I'm SJ, Proprietor of MoJo's Boutique. Thanks for visiting my booth space here inside Eras and being curious enough to visit this webpage. It's my pleasure to provide a mini history lesson and introduce you to one of Vancouver's founding pioneers, Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart - or MoJo, as I affectionately call her.
I've been a junker and a tinkerer my entire life. I spent my youth shadowing my father, who was a Construction Superintendent by trade, as he worked on muscle cars in his garage in his spare time. My earliest memories are skulking around junkyards, building sites and swap meets with my Dad looking for car parts. As a result, I've always been interested how things worked, antiques, building architecture, construction and all the related materials - including bricks. A few years ago I found an old brick that was stamped "1871" inside an antique store on Main Street - and like you, I was curious about where it came from. I discovered that it was made right here in Vancouver, that a remarkable woman was at the heart of this brick's story, and I had more in common with a Catholic nun than I ever dreamed was possible.
Our Hidden brick journey begins on April 16, 1823, just outside of Montreal Quebec on a rich plot of island farmland when Esther Parizeau (Pariseau) - the girl who would later be known as Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart - was born. The eldest daughter of 10 children, young Esther was raised in a close knit, happy family. She grew up learning tasks traditionally assigned to women like sewing and embroidery from her mother Francoise and enjoyed helping care for her younger siblings. Remarkably, Esther was also taught farming and agriculture, and by shadowing her carriage-maker father Joseph Parizeau learned the building and construction techniques that shaped her life's work. Esther was strong, impatient, masculine in appearance, had a smooth, deep alto voice, and was respected (and sometimes feared!) by men. She excelled in embroidery, carpentry, masonry, waxwork, and was particularly gifted when it came to woodworking - a unique set of proficiencies for a woman at the time. After a powerful religious experience, Esther vowed to dedicate her life to building social services to care for the poor. In 1844 (at the age of 21) she joined the new Catholic order of Sisters of Charity of Providence of Montreal, Quebec, adopting St. Joseph's name as her own.
The Hudson's Bay Company at busy Fort Vancouver sent word that they were in desperate need of social services including medical care and someone to care for the biracial orphans that were continually being abandoned by the HBC's transient fur trappers. Dr. John McLoughlin's continual pleas to the Bishop of Montreal were answered a when a party of three nuns and two postulants was sent to Fort Vancouver in December 1856.
The brilliant, resourceful, now six-foot tall Sister Joseph was chosen to lead her four other companions in this new mission to the wild Oregon Territory and promoted to "Mother Superior" - she only spoke French.
Despite a grueling journey ending with no provisions at Fort Vancouver made for the missionaries as promised when the party arrived from Canada, Mother Joseph still rose to the occasion. Using reclaimed lumber from an old barracks she quickly built a small one room dwelling to house her group, stunning the soldiers into silence with her ingenuity and skill. This humble wood structure eventually became the St. Joseph Hospital - the first hospital in the Pacific Northwest.
In 1871, realizing she needed a brickyard to provide quality materials for the expanding Catholic Diocese's building projects, Mother Joseph (with the aid of an English speaking nun to translate) approached a man named L.M. Hidden at the docks of Hayden Island in Portland. She presented him with a masonry book and an order for one million bricks to build a new orphanage and school she had drawn up the plans for - Vancouver's Providence Academy, which still stands proudly a few blocks away from here at C & Evergreen Streets. The Hidden Brick Company was founded that same year to provide Mother Joseph her desired cherry red handmade bricks, and three generations of Hiddens ended up building a great portion of the West Coast with them.
The Hidden Brickyard c. 1920 - the tall bearded man in the middle is LM Hidden.
LM's grandson and local philanthropist Robert Hidden later saved MoJo's Providence Academy from the wrecking ball in the 1960s when it was to be turned into a parking lot. Part of the reason the Academy is still here is Mother Joseph was notorious stickler for quality and details - she drove LM nearly crazy insisting on inspecting every single brick, rejecting many that were not uniform in color for her building projects. The Hidden brickyard finally ceased production upon Robert's death in 1992. A Hidden Brick was interred with him inside his coffin, per his wishes.
Robert Arthur Hidden (1910-1992)
The exposed red bricks above your head here at Eras are also Hidden bricks. Not all Hidden bricks are stamped "HIDDEN" in the frog (middle) of the brick - some have dates stamped in them instead, and some are plain and have no markings at all.
If you look out the front window of the store to your left, you can see in the distance another of the Hidden brick architectural treasures Mother Joseph was involved with constructing, the 1884-built St. James Proto-Cathedral. During her building career, Mother Joseph traveled and built over 30 orphanages, schools and hospitals in the PNW, which resulted in today's modern Providence Health System, arguably inventing the concept of health insurance in the process. She was known for her ability to get things done in next to impossible circumstances and in the nick of time, "with God's Providence." Mother Joseph also had an endless love for the many orphaned children she served. A notorious insomniac, she kept hard candies in her pocket as rewards for recited prayers by sleepless children that crept out of bed to try to keep her company as she worked late into the night. She is honored locally with tributes in several locations in downtown Vancouver, including the public art project just across the street at the bus mall that showcases some of the city's finest citizens over the years.
Mother Joseph's courage, endless drive, refusal to obey gender norms, and continuing compassion for those most vulnerable and in need have been a continual inspiration as I work towards my own entrepreneurship. Despite my own complicated feelings about the Catholic faith I was raised in, I chose to name my business in her honor. Thanks for being curious about an old brick and spending a few minutes with me today. Many people don't realize that Vancouver is an older settlement than the city of Portland and is full of fascinating historical narratives. For a deeper dive on the Hidden Bricks, Mother Joseph and the local history linked to both, check out the rest of brickmojo.net (this site) for more information. ~ SJ Schick, Proprietor.
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