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Historic Seattle's earthquake relief program, co-funded and administered with the city's Office of Economic Development, put me in touch with a number of great local landmarks and their owners. I learned that one of these needy landmarks was not yet on the city's landmarks register, which was one of the primary criteria for our financial aid.
Mount Baker Park Presbyterian Church, built in the mid-1920s, is a great example of Italianate architecture, a visual keystone on verdant Hunter Boulevard, and a community center. The church was long reluctant to make its significance official because of misunderstandings about what was required of landmark building owners. They were concerned, for instance, that they couldn't do anything to the building once it was protected by landmark status - their kitchen is in great need of overhauling, and new bathrooms were needed in their addition.
Coming Full Circle
Mount Baker Park Presbyterian has been rooted in its community even before the first cornerstone was laid. The process of raising capital funds for the construction of the church was about as simple, and community-oriented as one can imagine. Several female church members canvassed the Mount Baker neighborhood, knocked on doors, and collected $10 from community "sponsors" during the mid-1910s. This effort took years.
The memory of this heart-felt effort is recorded in dusty ledgers packed away among old photographs of church get-togethers, reverends of the past, half-century old church newsletters, and other ephemera. Each donation is recorded in these ledgers, in thin, spidery script.
The church has retained its connection to the Mount Baker community ever since. This relationship became clear after the Nisqually Quake.
The earthquake damaged the church's signature bell tower. The quake rattled the tower away from the sanctuary, and repair estimates were initially staggering. The price tag for retrofitting the church was already high, which called into question the relative importance of preserving the tower. One church member got the idea to hang a banner on the tower that called attention to the problem, and the real need for funds. "Save Our Tower," it asked, and miraculously, the neighborhood answered.
The church received donations from around 100 community members, not all of them members of the church. Some of them weren't even religious, and stated that fact when contributing. While the community's donations didn't come close to the cost of repairing the tower, the number of interested neighbors, and internal attachments to the building, sent the church headlong into restoration and comprehensive rehabilitation efforts that will continue for years.
Lessons Learned
Working with Mount Baker Park Presbyterian has helped Historic Seattle better understand the needs of local historic churches. In this case, as in most cases, large checks are at the top of the list. Technical assistance is also important. The initial estimate for the retrofit and repair of the tower was high, but this was only one opinion. There are often many ways to repair and retrofit a historic building that also preserves its integrity. Second opinions can be extremely helpful, and save property owners thousands of dollars. When the overall budget for capital improvements and retrofit are already high, such as the case with many historic churches, cost-saving alternative methods are enormously valuable.
Historic Seattle's Sacred Sites Initiative, now in its planning and development stages, is paying attention to the many lessons learned from the aftermath of last year's earthquake. As local religious institutions chart their futures, and the futures of their buildings, we would like to provide them with the tools they need to preserve their unique architectural legacy.
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