A place of prayer

Stacy J. Willis

Saturday, Jan. 22, 2000 | 9:44 a.m.

From her home in the only convent in Southern Nevada, Sister Philippa Margaret Catton has painted the same view of Lake Mead dozens of times.

"It's beautiful. I never tire of it," said Catton, who has been here 20 years.

Soon, she may be painting the scenery in West Virginia.

The Wellspring Retreat Center in Boulder City, which has been home to the Anglican Sisters of Charity for more than two decades, is up for sale.

"We simply can't keep up with maintenance on the building," said Sister Julian Fishbeck, one of four nuns who live in the 17,000-square-foot building. After surfing the Internet in search of a more manageable site, the nuns have identified a smaller property in West Virginia and hope to move this summer.

But they will leave a legacy of social service in Nevada.

The Sisters of Charity community of nuns migrated from England to Boulder City in 1967 -- one of about 25 orders of Anglican, or Episcopalian, nuns in the United States. The nearest other Anglican order is in Tucson, Ariz.

When they arrived in Boulder City 30 years ago, the nuns made their home in a former hospital building constructed to house injured Hoover Dam workers.

Today Wellspring's meandering halls and once-sterile rooms have given way to floral wallpaper and pink paint. Where doctors once stood to check X-rays, nuns and their guests now eat evening meals.

"People say 'What a wonderful atmosphere for a religious retreat,' " Sister Philippa said. "I say, 'Remember how this started. It was a hospital. It was a place of prayer and healing, and it still is.' "

Wellspring has served as a longtime rallying point for all denominations of religious groups and a getaway for wayward individuals.

During the last 30 years, high school students, homeless people, recovering alcoholics and hospice patients have been taken in by the nuns for a weekend or, in some cases, months.

Guests sleep in rooms named for Episcopalian churches in Nevada -- Christ Church, St. Timothy's, All Saints.

In recent years Wellspring opened its doors to AIDS patients who had nowhere to go for Christmas.

"It was wonderful last year," Catton said. "We had gifts and several hundred strings of lights, and they decorated the tree while they were here."

Nuns are increasingly rare, according to Catton. "There are so many more careers available to women now," she said. "They go into other fields. Even in the service of God, there are more careers available. In my time if a girl felt she wanted to give her life to God in service, there was nowhere else to do it."

The building and the two-acre hill it sits on have been listed by Desert Sun Realty with a price tag of $2 million. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings.