Church & State -- Washington Is Full Of Historical Houses Of Worship

When the first European settlers arrived among the hills and fiords of the Puget Sound region, almost the first public buildings they erected were churches.

And fine churches they were: spare, white, solid, slender-steepled echoes of New England or Sweden or Wales.

A surprising number of these early wooden churches survive today, beacons of tranquility in places like Coupeville, Poulsbo, Wilkeson and Black Diamond. Many of the most interesting are in reach of a weekend day trip.

Arnold and Esther Pearson of Seattle first cataloged these survivors in 1980 for a book of photographs called "Early Churches of Washington State."

"At first we just saw architecture," said Arnold Pearson, an 81-year-old retired Boeing engineer. "But soon we started to see in these churches the stories of the people and the countries they came from."

There is the Scandinavian stolidity of the Swedish Baptist Church at Preston, near Fall City; the classic Tuscan lines of Our Lady of Mount Virgin in Seattle's Rainier Valley; the onion dome of Holy Trinity Orthodox in Wilkeson, built for Serbian coal miners.

It was civic pride, as much as religious zeal, that drove the first church builders, said Esther Pearson, a retired landscape architect.

"The first settlers in Washington Territory were not very religious," she said. "But the leading citizens always wanted a church in town."

If a town was blessed with a mill, like Port Gamble or Port

Townsend, the church could be elegant and tastefully finished.

"Some of the craftsmanship in the Episcopal church at Port Gamble, for instance, is just beautiful," Pearson said. "The builders were millwrights and shipfitters."

On the other hand were the rough-and-tumble frontier churches like St. Claire's Catholic Mission, built in 1870 near Auburn. Its weathered clapboards are unmilled, and the steeple is supported by a pair of 6-by-6 braces, like a hayloft.

Early church carpenters had to use what was handy: In a hurry to finish St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Tacoma before the railroad arrived in 1873, settlers lopped off a cedar tree at 40 feet and built an octagonal belfry on the stump. It still stands, nicely twined with climbing ivy.

Lacking fancy tools, church carpenters used handsaws to carve out ornamental gimcracks and cut cedar shingles in fanciful shapes. The United Methodist Church in Orting, built in 1891, is virtually a riot of fancy-cut shingles, which alternate in layers all around the exterior.

The oldest standing church in the state of Washington is Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Steilacoom, originally built in 1856 as a chapel for soldiers at Fort Steilacoom. It's a severe, white, government-issue building, much in demand today for weddings.

Many Catholic churches were built by the ubiquitous Father Casimir Chirouse, a French missionary who was a good practical carpenter. His churches - such as St. Paul's at Swinomish, built in 1868 - are marked by clear, simple lines rising to a central steeple.

The oldest Protestant church in the state is the Methodist church at Claquato, near Chehalis. Built in 1858, it was also used many years as the community's school. The door is handmade, the pews and pulpit shaped by hand from planks.

Many early churches, such as the L-shaped Bayview Methodist Church in Skagit County, were built from standard plans provided by mission societies - "that's why so many look alike," explained Esther Pearson.

When they made their survey 15 years ago, the Pearsons photographed 112 pioneer churches across the state. Remarkably, almost all still survive.

"We were always so glad when we found an old church site," Esther Pearson said, "especially if we discovered that it hadn't already become a parking lot."

The Pearsons' book, "Early Churches in Washington State," published in 1980 by the University of Washington Press, is out of print. It can be found at public libraries and used-book stores.

---------------- PIONEER CHURCHES ----------------

KING COUNTY

-- St. Claire's Mission (1870), 39015 172nd Ave. S.E., Auburn.

-- New Age Christian Church (1890), 1763 N.W. 62nd St., Ballard.

-- Preston Baptist Church (1902), 31104 S.E. 86th St., Preston.

-- Temple de Hirsch Sinai (1908), 1511 E. Pike St., Seattle.

-- St. Barbara's Catholic Church (1911), Sixth Avenue North and Baker Street, Black Diamond.

-- First African Methodist Episcopal Church (1912), 1522 14th St., Seattle.

-- Our Lady of Mount Virgin Catholic Church (1914), 1531 Bradner Place S., Seattle.

PIERCE COUNTY

-- Immaculate Conception Catholic Church (1856), Main Street and Nisqually Avenue, Steilacoom.

-- St. Peter's Chapel-at-Ease (1873), 2910 N. Starr, Tacoma.

-- Orting United Methodist Church (1891), 109 E. Train Ave., Orting.

-- Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church (1894), Ash Street and Highway 165, Wilkeson.

-- Vaughn Community Church (1897), 17520 Hall Road, Vaughn.

-- First Congregational Church (1900), 440 Sixth Ave., Fox Island.

-- Holy Trinity Orthodox Church (1900), 431 Long St., Wilkeson.

-- Elbe Lutheran Church (1906), Highway 706 near the train station, Elbe.

-- St. Joseph's Catholic Church (Slovak) (1911), Tacoma Avenue and South 34th Street, Tacoma.

SNOHOMISH COUNTY

-- St. John's Episcopal Church (1894), 913 Second Ave., Snohomish.

-- Calvary Lutheran Church (1902), 2932 Rockefeller Ave., Everett.

-- St. Anne's Catholic Church (1904), 7231 Totem Beach Road, Tulalip Indian Reservation.

-- First Church of Christ, Scientist (1910), 3231 Colby Ave., Everett.

KITSAP COUNTY

-- St. Paul's Episcopal Church (1870), Highway 3, Port Gamble.

-- Eagle Harbor Congregational Church (1896), 105 Winslow Way W., Winslow.

-- St. Peter's Catholic Church (1902), 7076 South St., Suquamish.

-- First Lutheran Church (1908), 18920 Fourth Ave. N.E., Poulsbo.

SKAGIT COUNTY

-- Avon United Methodist Church (1884), 1375 Avon-Allen Road, Mount Vernon.

-- Bayview United Methodist Church (1888), Third and C streets, Bayview.

-- Sacred Heart Catholic Church (1899), 410 E. Douglas, LaConner.

-- Fir-Conway Lutheran Church (1916), 1611 Fir Island Road, Mount Vernon.

ISLAND COUNTY

-- St. Mary's Catholic Church (1889), 207 Main St., Coupeville.

-- Coupeville United Methodist Church (1894), 608 N. Main St., Coupeville.

-- Camano Lutheran Church (1904), 850 N. Heichel, Camano Island.