Providence Home Geode Grotto

20 years of building walls, planters, fountains and shrines that sprawl the grounds of this Catholic-run nursing home. All made with rocks from a nearby town. Rock gardens and grottos are a long-standing Roman Catholic tradition, especially in Europe. Religious shrines dot the U.S. map, too, often tucked away in lesser-known locales. Many of these shrines employ natural materials like stones, shells, and bones as examples of “God-made” beauty. The Providence Home Geode Grotto in Jasper shows how one devoted designer went kind of wild with local materials. Father Phillip Ottavi of the Sons of Divine Providence became director of St. Joseph’s Providence Home, a care facility for mentally disabled men, in 1953. He conceived the notion of creating something spiritual and beautiful on the site of the home’s demolished handball court. An Italian immigrant, Ottavi based his plan on the famous Grotto of Lourdes in France.