I mentioned yesterday that the First Christian Church on Broadway was in the midst of being demolished. While wandering around today I stopped by the site, got some video of the work being done, and found out a little bit more about why the building’s coming down.
After coming home and doing a few searches around the ‘net, I confirmed what I’d been told today — apparently, the building has actually been closed since 2001, after it was damaged in the Nisqually earthquake. The costs to make it safe were simply too much for the congregation to bear, so they merged with another church up the street, and arranged for the demolition of the building.
The towered terracotta and brick building across from the Seattle Central campus took damage in the Nisqually Earthquake of 2001. Costly repairs were made, but the damage was a wake-up call to the congregation. They evaluated the option of making the building earthquake-safe and modernized, but “the cost of these… was in the range of five to ten million dollars.” Clark Beck, a member of the congregation since 1969, circulated a memo to the congregation and neighbors about the decision to sell the church. “The congregation felt it was more important to devote limited resources and energy to fulfilling their social and spiritual mission,” continued Beck.
Though the building is coming down, the congregation will live-on down the street. Combined with Pilgrim Congregational Church, First Christian Church is now All Pilgrims Christian Church.
One thing I was very glad to confirm — I’d suspected that this would be the case, but I hadn’t been sure until today — is that the stained glass windows have been salvaged and saved to be sold off later.
We’ve been working the site with Earthwise some time now, salvaging trim, car decking, rails, flooring, lights, and some small windows. Today started the big part of the job: removing the large Povey Bros. stained glass from the facade. A rented scaffolding was erected and by day’s end the top row of windows was salvaged and the large opening boarded up.
After getting home, I pulled the photos and videos I shot with my camera today and put together a short little mini-film about the demolition. It’s nothing that’s going to win any awards, but it was a fun little project to work on over the afternoon.