Seattle Residents Hope to Save 1926 Church
By Margaret Foster | From Preservation | Apr. 16, 2007
The Queen Anne Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist, was
designed by Harlan Thomas, who designed Seattle's Sorrento
Hotel and Harborview Hospital.
Credit: Chris Moore, Washington Trust for Historic Preservation
Although the city of Seattle has issued a demolition permit for a 1926 church, some residents haven't given up on the Spanish Colonial, Mission-style building.
This week, if a city hearing examiner could rules in favor of the church's owner, the small congregation of the Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist, the stucco building could be demolished to make way for four houses.
"She could rule then and there, which would allow demolition to begin on Thursday," says Chris Moore, field director at the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation. Still, he says, "There's a chance that we can come to a preservation solution to the property."
The church's remaining congregants have agreed to sell the property to developer David Fletcher, who received a demolition permit from the city on Feb. 1.
The stucco church, designed by Harlan Thomas (1870-1953), is historic, but it is not protected under the city's landmarks preservation ordinance because of a 1996 State Supreme Court decision exempting religious properties from those ordinances.
Moore says the Washington Trust plans to meet with the church's remaining handful of congregants. "We're going to try to sit down and see if we can have time to find a buyer who will preserve the church."
A local historical society had found a pro-renovation buyer, but in January the congregation decided not to allow an engineering firm access to do a pro bono structural assessment.
"The city council needs to step in and stop this hearing until we get to the bottom of this," says Char Egglestrom, landmarks preservation chair of the Queen Anne Historical Society, which has been trying to save the church since October. Eggleston, who sent a letter to the city council today, says the demolition permit is inaccurate—the building is 13,278 square feet, not 8,400, as the document says—and improper because it's issued to the developer, not the church.
"It's an unhappy situation," says Byron Coney, a lawyer who filed one of five appeals to the city's demolition permit. "No one can seem to come up with a million and a half dollars to save this building."
Coney has asked Deputy Hearing Examiner Ann Wantanabe to reconsider her dismissal of his appeal and plans to file a lawsuit if she does not. The hearing of the remaining two appeals, which are based on environmental concerns and not historic preservation, is scheduled for Apr. 18.
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