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5:23 PM
Anyone know the status of this job or who is going to get to do the demolition of the old church??
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Neighbors try to save historic Queen Anne church
By AUBREY COHEN
P-I REPORTER
Neighbors of a historic Queen Anne church are fighting the city's approval to demolish the building.
The Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist, congregation decided to sell the 81-year-old church, at 2555 Eighth Ave. W., because of its dwindling congregation and deteriorating condition.
Joshua Trujillo / P-I
A city historical evaluation describes the 81-year-old Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist, on Queen Anne as a Neo-Byzantine early Christian Revival building with Mission and Spanish Colonial elements.
Bill Merkle, a Windermere Real Estate agent representing 2555 Project LLC, said the developer is helping the congregation with the demolition application, has a deal to buy the site once the church is gone and plans to build four homes on the 18,795-square-foot site.
City planners approved the demolition in February, but drew four appeals from neighbors and neighborhood groups. The church will continue to stand at least until after a hearing on the appeals.
"It just seems to me like it definitely could be saved and it should be," said Leanne Olson, a spokeswoman for the Queen Anne Historical Society, which filed a joint appeal with Queen Anne Neighbors for Responsible Growth. "There's nothing else like it in the city of Seattle."
Merkle called the appeals disappointing, saying they are impeding development and would burden the congregation. "The longer this goes on, the more money it costs them that they don't have," he said. "They tried to sell this church for many years to people who would use it."
A 2004 city historical evaluation -- done as part of a review of buildings in various neighborhoods -- describes the octagonal building as a Neo-Byzantine early Christian Revival church that features Mission and Spanish Colonial elements. Its architect, Harlan Thomas, also designed his home on Queen Anne, the Chelsea Hotel on Olympic Way and the Sorrento Hotel on First Hill.
The evaluation said the church appeared to meet criteria for the National Register of Historic Places and Seattle Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. Landmark designation would block demolition of the building.
Planners acknowledged the historic nature of the building in their review of the demolition application, but noted that state law bans applying preservation rules to churches without the consent of the congregation. The church is not a landmark and the church has not agreed to make it one.
Several appellants argued that the church should not be exempt from landmark rules because the congregation no longer planned to own or use the site.
"The mission of the church has disappeared," said appellant Byron Coney of Seattle. "They're going out of business."
Congregation members could not be reached for comment but, shortly after applying for demolition late last year, member Mabel Adkins said the building was too big and would cost too much to repair. She said the congregation tried to sell it to someone who would use the building and got a lot of interest, but no takers.
In their joint appeal, the historical society and neighbors group said they know of at least three serious potential buyers who would make an offer if the building were determined to be structurally sound. They say an inspector agreed to review the building for free, but the congregation would not allow that.
Tracy White, the director of Young Child Academy on Roy Street, said she expressed interest in buying the church last spring, before the congregation struck the deal with the developer. She said she never had it inspected, but heard it would need extensive retrofitting.
"That really didn't derail us," White said.
Coney said he asked about buying the church several years ago and was told it was not for sale. On Monday, he said he was still interested in using the building for a new congregation of the Ethical Culture Society, and maintaining it for lectures, performances and use by other congregations.
"It's really a jewel and it's got to be saved," said Coney, who lives in a historic house and is a member of Historic Seattle.
Coney said he talked to someone who has done an engineering study of the building and said that renovating it is feasible.
LEARN MORE
Demolition appeal: The city hearing examiner has scheduled a hearing for 9 a.m. March 19 in Room 4009, 40th floor of Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 Fifth Ave.
Details: Go to seattle.gov/dpd and use the "Check Status" option to search for project No. 3005696.
10:04 AM
Again, it's just people making a big fuss over nothing. Really shows they have nothing better to do.
Offline
Well first off, it just shows you how much the public is misinformed about lead paint and dust. The lady said she is worried about the lead paint and dust, c’mon it’s not like they would tear it down without removing or containing the lead paint and using water to wet the building down.
But I really don’t have an opinion on this one.
Historic preservationists and neighbors of the Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist, on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle, are mobilizing to try to stop demolition of the 1926 structure.
The Queen Anne Historical Society says that at least one buyer had expressed interest in preserving the building if the congregation would allow an independent structural assessment. The society says the congregation rejected that request in January.
Charles Bergstrom, a spokesman for the church, said the congregation wanted to meet the prospective buyer first before granting an engineering firm access to the building.
The church marketed the property unsuccessfully for two years, he said, before reluctantly deciding in July to sign a deal with developer David Fletcher, who plans to build four homes on the site. Like many urban churches, Seventh Church has struggled to keep up with repairs even as its membership dwindled.
"It's one thing to say it should be saved; it's another thing to do it," Bergstrom said.
After the city said in February it would issue a demolition permit, three Queen Anne residents, a Capitol Hill attorney and the historical society filed appeals with a hearing examiner. The parties are scheduled to meet with the examiner April 18.
The unusual church is decorated in the neo-Byzantine early Christian Revival style, highlighted vividly by three massive arched doorways on its east face. Although the city says the building might qualify as a historic landmark, the congregation opposes that designation because it would stop it from closing a deal it struck with Fletcher.
Under state law, the city cannot impose historic-landmark status on a church building without the church's consent.
"It's a jewel that has to be preserved," says Byron Coney, the Capitol Hill attorney appealing the demolition permit. Coney says that he told the church more than three years ago that he was interested in buying the property for a religious center and neighborhood performance hall but was told by the church that it wasn't for sale.
David Weaver, the church's real-estate broker, says he began listing the property in 2005 for $2.3 million and showed it to interested buyers such as schools, churches and other nonprofits that would preserve the building.
The wooden pews can seat up to 300 people. The organ, concealed behind walls, was manufactured by Balcom and Vaughan Master Organ Builders of Seattle.
"We had so many people who thought this was the greatest opportunity," Weaver said. "Then they never came back."
The building sustained structural damage in the Nisqually earthquake of 2001. Cracks run from the floor to the ceiling along a load-bearing wall and in other parts of the church. A leaky roof has led to peeling plaster in the education wing.
Opponents of the demolition question city officials' wisdom.
Leanne Olson of the historical society, which filed a joint appeal with Queen Anne Neighbors for Responsible Growth, says the architect who designed the church, Harlan Thomas, lived in the neighborhood and also played a key role in the design of such well-known structures as the Sorrento Hotel and the Corner Market Building at Pike Place Market.
The church's neo-Byzantine style alone makes it worth saving, the society says.
"There's really nothing else of that sort in the city of Seattle," Olson said.
Neighbor Tyler Crone is concerned about the impact a demolition could have on the health of her two young children, 1 and 3. Crone says she believes the church contains lead-based paint and worries about a cloud of dust coating her house and yard. Decades of studies have shown lead exposure harms the developing brains of young children.
Bill Merkle, Fletcher's real-estate agent, says the developer is submitting a report to the city on potential health hazards from demolition. Merkle says he's confident the demolition will be allowed to proceed.
"Some of the appeals are not based on legal grounds," he says. "We feel they'll be dismissed."
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