In the early 1900s Seattle neighborhoods were growing farther to the northeast, on the edges of communities such as Ravenna and the Town of Yesler.  Ravenna was a railroad stop at the intersection of Blakeley Street & 25th Ave NE.  The Town of Yesler grew at the present site of Laurelhurst where, in the 1880s, another Yesler sawmill had operated in addition to the Yesler Mill of 1853 on the downtown Seattle waterfront.

As of 1900 there was as yet no streetcar or bus system travelling into northeast Seattle farther than Ravenna Park.  There was only a railroad, the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern, which went through Ravenna and Yesler and was used primarily for transporting products such as lumber and coal.

As of the year 1900 a shingle mill was operating on the former sawmill site at Yesler on Union Bay, and a spur of the railroad could access it.   Today’s Union Bay Natural Area is the site of the former sawmill.

Northeast Seattle residents get organized

The lack of roads and resources did not deter early northeast Seattle residents from organizing themselves.  In the 1890s there were already enough families with children so that the communities of Ravenna and Yesler each built and opened a one or two-room schoolhouse.

Schoolhouses also functioned as meeting places.  In 1901 one of northeast Seattle’s earliest church groups met at the Yesler Schoolhouse on 36th Ave NE at the corner of NE 47th Street.  The group was at first called the Yesler Sunday School because it was not yet officially organized as a church.

The Yesler Sunday School group grew and became Ravenna Methodist Church in a building marked on the above map, Seattle Female College at 5702 26th Ave NE.  As of 1903, this was the second meeting place of the church.  Today the Ravenna Methodist church building is on NE 60th Street next to Bryant Elementary School at the corner of 33rd Ave NE.

This blog article will trace the founding years of this Yesler church group which became Ravenna Methodist.  Today the church building on NE 60th Street has been acquired by a new group called Illume.

 Churches grew alongside the schools of northeast Seattle

The history of churches in northeast Seattle ran parallel with that of the establishment of schools.  Church groups often met at schoolhouses, and churches drew attendance from the communities of families with children.  First organized as Sunday schools, these groups often had the support of well-established downtown Seattle congregations who could send volunteers to help teach classes and lead music.  The Yesler Sunday School met at the schoolhouse on 36th Ave NE at NE 47th Street.

The Yesler Sunday School benefited from the support of Rev. Thomas Plummer Revelle of the First Methodist Church in downtown Seattle, where he’d arrived as pastor in April 1900.   This energetic man ministered to the downtown First Methodist congregation on Sunday mornings and evenings, and for about two years, 1901 to 1903, on Sunday afternoons he also taught Sunday school and led a church service at the Yesler site. “Sunday school” meant a study-format of classes for both children and adults, reading a passage of the Bible and considering its meaning and application to real life.

Rev. Revelle ministers to the Yesler group

We may wonder how Rev. Revelle was able to get to Yesler on Sundays, as in 1901 cars had not yet come into general use, there was no ship canal with bridges, or roads to Yesler.  I don’t know for sure how Rev. Revelle traveled between downtown Seattle and Yesler, but it seems likely that he would have gone by boat, perhaps on one of the little steamers called the Mosquito Fleet on Lake Washington.  In those days one could take a cable car along Madison Street from downtown Seattle to the shore of Lake Washington where there was a boat landing.

Ferries on Lake Washington were large enough to take on horses & wagons as this was one way to bring products from outlying communities to downtown Seattle via the Madison Street dock.  Small steamers also stopped at the Madison Street dock to take passengers around Lake Washington.  It was even possible to use a rowboat to get from the Madison Street dock, to Yesler.  Today, from the Yesler Swamp/Union Bay Natural Area, one can still see the posts of the sawmill’s dock which extended out into Union Bay, where boats might have dropped off passengers.

Active Sundays for Rev. Revelle

We may surmise that some volunteers traveled with Rev. Revelle to help in the journey from downtown to Yesler.  Volunteers may have helped at the Yesler Sunday school by leading music or teaching the children.

We can presume that Rev. Revelle had a good strong voice for preaching, and perhaps he had a good singing voice, too.  After landing at the Yesler dock at about NE 41st Street, Rev. Revelle and the volunteers likely walked along the railroad right-of-way (the spur which extended to the mill site) aligned with 35th Ave NE, to the Yesler Schoolhouse at NE 47th Street.  Perhaps Rev. Revelle and the volunteers sang along the way, alerting residents that it was almost time for the meeting at the schoolhouse.

Meanwhile, at the Yesler Schoolhouse, someone would have come ahead of time to stoke the wood stove to warm the building.  There was no electricity at Yesler so perhaps lanterns were used for light.

We can guess that Rev. Revelle’s group brought a lantern with them because they didn’t leave Yesler until about 5 or 6 PM on Sunday afternoons, and in winter it would have been dark outside by that time.  They would have to walk back to the dock in the dark.  Rev. Revelle had to get back downtown to lead yet another church service at 8 PM at the First Methodist Church.

These are some of the practical considerations which cause us to appreciate the determination of the Yesler group to hold meetings, and we can admire the energy and dedication of Rev. Revelle and his volunteers. Rev. Revelle lived like an early American circuit-riding preacher who ministered to more than one congregation each Sunday.

The Yesler group grows and grows

The census of 1900 showed that Yesler residents numbered about 65 households, including many families with children. Occupations listed on the census included carpenters, a tailor, building contractor, blacksmith, stone mason, and teamster (someone who drives a horse-drawn wagon). There was a telegrapher, conductor and engineer living at Yesler by the railroad stop near the present trestle at Union Bay Place NE.

The Yesler Sunday School group grew rapidly and was officially organized as a church in 1903, with a pastor, Rev. H.J. Hartsell, assigned to them. Hartsell had studied with Rev. Revelle. We don’t know whether Rev. Revelle played Cupid, but we know he officiated at the wedding of Rev. Hartsell to a Seattle woman in 1904.

The Yesler group looked for a larger meeting place.  W.W. Beck, developer of Ravenna, generously offered the use of a building at 5702 26th Ave NE.

The Red Church (former Seattle Female College building)

Beck’s building had originally been called the Seattle Female College.  It was built in 1890 during the period of optimism and expansion after the Seatle Fire in June 1889.  During the population boom after the Fire, real estate investors like Beck thought that the City of Seattle would expand out to the northeast.  He was right, but it didn’t happen as rapidly as he thought.  Mrs. Beck taught music classes at the Seattle Female College but the school’s fortunes fell during the economic crash called the Panic of 1893.

By the time of the move to the new location in 1903, the Yesler Sunday School had changed its name to the Ravenna Methodist Church.  They made improvements to Beck’s building, including paint and exterior landscaping, and called their meeting place the Red Church.

A dramatic turning point in the life of the congregation came about because of a fire at the Red Church.  On the evening of Thursday, February 2, 1911, a church meeting had just concluded when it was discovered that the building’s furnace was on fire.  Fortunately, with many people still present, they were able to carry out furniture to be saved.  Nothing could be done to save the building itself because there was no water resource available such as a fire hydrant.  Neighbors rushed to the site and chopped down trees to prevent the fire from igniting the trees and spreading flames to nearby houses.

Ravenna Methodist moves to NE 60th Street (today’s Bryant neighborhood)

After the loss of the Red Church in February 1911, Ravenna Methodist received an offer of help from a retired Methodist minister, Rev. John C. Norton, one of the founders of Seattle Pacific University.  Rev. Norton owned the land around today’s Bryant School on NE 60th Street and offered Ravenna Methodist a place to build.

Only seven months after the fire which destroyed the Red Church building, this vigorous congregation had completed construction of a new wood-frame building on the present site of Bryant School, the southeast corner of 33rd Avenue NE at NE 60th Street.

The new church building opened on September 24, 1911. At that time the neighborhood name of “Bryant” had not yet come into use. The northeast Seattle area just north of the train tracks was referred to as either Yesler or Ravenna.

In 1918 a new wood-frame school was built at NE 57th Street on the south end of the same block as the wood-frame Ravenna Methodist Church at NE 60th. The new school, officially named Bryant on November 17, 1918, was built because of population growth and because the Yesler/Laurelhurst School was overcrowded.  The availability of Bryant School caused even more neighborhood growth as families were attracted to the area.

By 1918 cars were in greater use in Seattle. After the ship canal and bridges had been built, more people wanted to live in the “suburbs” of northeast Seattle and drive to work.

Before creation of the ship canal and lowering of Lake Washington was completed in 1917, the present University Village area was under water. That was why the train route curved around its north side, along Blakeley Avenue.  When the water receded, NE 45th Street was put through from 25th Ave NE over to Union Bay Place NE.  In the 1920s people began driving from downtown across the University Bridge or the Montlake Bridge, eastward on NE 45th Street up to the growing Bryant area.

Bryant grows and grows

By the 1920s the Bryant community was growing rapidly, attracting more and more families with children because of Bryant School and the church conveniently located on the same block between NE 57th to 60th Streets, 33rd Ave NE. The Ravenna Methodist congregation called their building the Little Brown Church, with the emphasis on “little” as the building was soon bursting at the seams.

In 1922 the Ravenna Methodist congregation had grown to the point that they again needed a larger meeting place.  They built again, this time across 33rd Ave NE where the church building, completed in 1923, still stands today on the southwest corner of 33rd & 60th.

The school district acquired all of the other block so that Bryant Elementary, a brick building built in 1926 on the southeast corner of NE 60th Street, is across 33rd Ave NE from the Ravenna Methodist church building.

Time and changes in churches 

Over our lifetimes we have seen social and cultural changes which have affected church attendance.

In the early 1900s during the formation of Yesler Sunday School/Ravenna Methodist Church, in-person meetings were a lifeline to people who felt isolated from mainstream Seattle happenings. Yesler did not have electricity or telephones.  Radio was not yet in common use, television and the Internet had not yet been invented, and newspapers were scarce.  It’s not surprising that Yesler residents organized for in-person meetings where they could socialize and hear an interesting message from the visiting preacher.

In 1901-1903 the fledgling Yesler Sunday School greatly looked forward to the meaty, challenging teaching of Reverend Revelle, whose sermons gave the congregation a lot to think about and an inspiration to live out their Christian faith.  “Faith comes from listening to the preaching of Good News about Christ.” (Bible verse reference Romans 10:17)

The reasons why people attend church, then and now, are because it is an enjoyable community event where everyone, including children, receives social interaction and support, instruction in Bible teachings, and spiritual encouragement.  People take the Good News preached on Sunday to carry them through the outworking of daily life.

One of the most shocking events of our lifetimes was the Pandemic of the year 2020 when suddenly, everyone was required to stay home.  From home isolation, we reached out via available means such as phone and Internet, to make contact with other people.  Some churches had not added any form of “on-line” participation until this crisis.  Now it is common to attend church, as well as other kinds of meetings, via channels such as YouTube or Zoom.

How will the church of today be able to continue telling God’s message of Good News?  The vitality of the original congregation has inspired the new group, Illume, which has acquired the Ravenna Methodist church building.

In the year 2023 a new congregation called Illume (as in “illumination”) is rehabbing the Ravenna Methodist Church building and is making adaptations for current church practices. For in-person use of the building, an accessible entrance and larger bathrooms are being added, and spaces that can be used during the week such as a coffee shop.

As this hundred-year-old building is being renovated, we will consider how space + spirituality will harmonize as the new Illume lights up the Bryant community.

Sources:

A History of Laurelhurst by Christine Barrett, 1981. This book traces how early developers re-invented Yesler to become Laurelhurst.

Architectural information from Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD) and newspaper references: The present Ravenna Methodist Church at 5751 33rd Ave NE, built 1922-1923, was designed by George Willis Lawton & Herman A. Moldenhour. The previous building, built in 1911 on the present site of Bryant School, was designed by architect Alpheus Dudley. I am not sure what happened to this building though one source said it was moved to be used by the nearby Assumption Catholic Church.

Census and marriage listings via Ancestry.com and Washington Digital Archives.

Church history document, “A Century of Faith and Action: the Ravenna United Methodist Church 1903-2003.”

HistoryLink Essays #1949 (Pike Place Market) and #7897 (the Revelle family).

Rev. Thomas P. Revelle left the ministry in 1906, studied law, and was elected to Seattle City Council. A bill he sponsored created Pike Place Market which opened on August 17, 1907. The purpose of the City’s market ordinance was to provide a place for direct sales from farmers to the public, overcoming the social injustice of previous marketing with a fee charged by middlemen.

Rev. Revelle had clearly fallen in love with Seattle and wanted to be involved in wider issues for the good of the City.  He persuaded five of his siblings to move to Seattle and he had a long career in law and public service. Former King County Executive Randy Revelle (1941-2018) was the grandson of Rev. Revelle’s brother George.

“Madison Park.” 520History.org   This essay tells of the Madison Street Cable Railway, the boat landing and ferry slip.

Seattle School histories: Bryant and Ravenna Schools.

Newspaper references:

“Fire Destroys Ravenna Church with Heavy Loss,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 3, 1911, page 1. This was the Red Church in the former Seattle Female College building.

Building permit application for Ravenna Methodist Protestant Church, 5758 33rd Ave NE, listed in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer July 1, 1911, page 17. This was the wood-frame Little Brown Church on the present site of Bryant School.

“New $4,500 Church Will Be Dedicated Sunday Afternoon,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer September 23, 1911, page 12. This was the Little Brown Church on the present site of Bryant School.

“M.P. Church Dedicated,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer May 28, 1923, page 8. Cost of the church building listed as $35,000; this is the present building at 5751 33rd Ave NE.