The Demolition of First Christian Church
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As I was out running errands on Capitol Hill yesterday, I happened upon the demolition team at work on First Christian Church, a Broadway landmark since the 1920s. A “Demolition Man” crane with a huge claw arm was delicately destroying the back side of the building, pulling dainty mouthfuls of brick from the gutted top floor. I had known that the church was scheduled for removal, but I hadn’t realized it was going to happen so soon. (Thank goodness I had my trusty camera with me to document the event!) |
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It’s a sad thing to see First Christian go, even if it wasn’t an especially noteworthy or beautiful piece of architecture. Old buildings have a beauty in and of themselves and it’s always a bit painful to watch them come down. From what I’ve been able to gather, it seems that the church was seriously damaged in the Nisqually earthquake and repairing it would have been prohibitively expensive. A salvage team took out the stained glass windows and other reusable bits and pieces in March (some interesting details on this at http://www.zverina.com/2005/0309.htm). I wonder what’s going to replace the building, once it’s all gone? |
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wow. I had no idea the church was scheduled for demolition! any idea what’s goint to take it’s place? is it related to the light rail?
This caught my eye this weekend too. I’ve got some video of “The Claw” at work posted here and a Flickr photoset of some of the work here.
Oh, and Cat — your picture looking up at the building threw me off for a minute. Take a look at this one that I took — I actually had to check the position of the plastic sheeting blowing out of the windows to be sure they weren’t the same photo! :)
Yeah, I’d love to know what they’re going to do with this location. I actually managed to find the City of Seattle Department of Planning and Development review of the request for a demolition permit (at http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/dpd/notices/decisions/2402890.pdf). Unfortunately, it doesn’t have anything to say about what’s going to replace the building (”No use is established following demolition.”).
I wouldn’t be surprised if this site were chosen for one of the entrances to a light rail station. Until now, I’d been placing my money on the old Godfather’s Pizza building, which the Vivace cafe is attached to.
Great pictures Michael! I took a whole bunch, but none of them came out especially well.
I walked past the church again on Sunday morning and they were taking down more of it. I’m dying to get back up there to see what’s left.
the request for demoition permit doesn’t mention why the church is being taken down; does anyone know?
Earthquake damage. They apparently made some expensive repairs after the Nisqually quake, but it wasn’t enough. I read somewhere that they were looking at 5-10 million dollars worth of further work and decided that it just wasn’t worth it. First Christian joined up with Pilgrim Congregational (500 Broadway E.) and the two congregations are now known as All Pilgrims Christian Church.
(If anyone ever tries to take down All Pilgrims, I will be the first to chain myself to the door in protest. I love that building.)
Another interesting thing I learned from the DPD document is that churches are exempt from historic preservation regulations.
I stumbled on this blog while researching the demolition of the Seattle First Christian Church. I was a student at Seattle Central at the time of the quake and always liked that building, sad to see it go. My information states it is to become a parking lot.
I entered a link to a photo that we took, it is an aerial view of the demolition, feel free to take a look. I pasted the link into the
OT - Cat, is that you? (as in a former Seattle Central student - web development program)??
FYI, click on Troy’s name to go to http://www.sky-pix.com/projects.html and see the aerial photo of the demolition that he mentions in his post — very cool shot!
(Yeppers, Troy — it’s the same Cat. Good to hear from you!)