Tacoma’s Sacred Places, Religious Worship Buildings from 1873 until 1965 First Presbyterian, ca. 1926, Tacoma Public Library A1208-0 Reconnaissance Level Survey Prepared by: For: Office of Historic Preservation Caroline T. Swope, M.S.H.P., Ph.D. City of Tacoma Kingstree Studios Economic Development Department 2902 North Cedar St. Culture and Tourism Division Tacoma, WA 98407 747 Market Street, Room 1036 Tacoma, WA 98402 Kingstree Studios 2010 Tacoma’s Sacred Places This Reconnaissance Level Survey of Tacoma’s Sacred Places has been financed in part with Federal funds from the National Park Service, Department of the Interior and administered by the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) and the City of Tacoma Historic Preservation Program. However, the contents and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of the Interior or DAHP. This program received Federal funds from the National Park Service. Regulations of the U.S. Department of Interior strictly prohibit unlawful discrimination in departmental Federally Assisted Programs on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, or handicap. Any person who believes he or she has been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility operated by a recipient of Federal assistance should write to: Director, Equal Opportunity Program, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20240. The City of Tacoma’s Office of Historic Preservation publicly solicited proposals for this project on February 23, 2009. 2 Kingstree Studios 2010 Tacoma’s Sacred Places Table of Contents Project background 4-9 Survey Management 4 Final Product Documentation 5 Research Objectives 5 Survey Methodology 6 Prior Survey Activity 7 Project Outreach 8 Historical Outline 9-11 Conclusion & Recommendations 12-16 Declining Religious Congregations 12-13 Potential Tools to Help Maintain Historic 13-14 Houses of Worship Wood Churches 14-16 Appendix A: Building Construction 17-27 Ecclesiastical Styles Gothic Revival 19-20 Neo-Classical & Colonial Revivals 21 Tudor Revival 22 Mission Revival 22 Romanesque & Byzantine Revivals 23 Craftsman 24 Vernacular 25-26 Modern 26-27 Appendix B: Major Architects 28-35 George W. Bullard 29 Frederick Henry Heath 29-30 Lea, Pearson, & Richards 30-31 Lundberg & Mahon 31-32 McGuire & Muri 32 Silas E. Nelsen 33 Robert Billsbrough Price 33-34 Paul Thiry 34-35 Bibliography 36-41 3 Kingstree Studios 2010 Tacoma’s Sacred Places Project Background This project focuses on religious worship spaces, and in some cases larger complexes with auxiliary buildings used for religious education, fellowship or pastoral housing throughout the entire city of Tacoma. There are a number of communities and neighborhoods spread thought the city and in many instances these sacred places serve or have served the ethnic groups or social boundaries defined by individual neighborhoods. In some cases, congregations are more representative of a particular religion or ethnic group than a neighborhood. Survey Management This project was administered by the City of Tacoma’s Historic Preservation Office. Kingstree Studios is a local cultural resource management firm. Caroline T. Swope, principal of Kingstree Studios, coordinated, supervised, and edited this project. A major component of this project, as defined under section 3 of the response, was community outreach and volunteer support. The consultant worked closely with Historic Tacoma and their Sacred Places Events, which included a public speaking engagement on May 28th, attendance at most of the planning meetings (where 15 of the city’s historic religious congregations met). There were an additional 4 congregations that asked for more detailed information regarding historic registry status, and individualized contact was initiated with these congregations as well. Ms. Swope conducted the field surveys, photographed the buildings, and generated new database inventory forms from the field survey. While this project was advertised as a reconnaissance survey, volunteer help provided significant research efforts devoted to a full search of the Tacoma Public Library’s records for each church surveyed. This remarkable volunteer effort was led by Historic Tacoma’s summer intern, Kelly Smith, a senior Historic Preservation student at Savannah College of Art and Design. Ms. Smith worked on this project full time through most of the summer. She was assisted by a number of volunteers, ranging from congregational members, Landmark Preservation Commissioners, and community historians. 4 Kingstree Studios 2010 Tacoma’s Sacred Places Final Product Documentation The final product, as delivered to the City of Tacoma’s Office of Historic Preservation: One set, original black and white, single-sided paper copies of the individual Historic Property Inventory Forms, bound One original paper Summary Report, 2009 One copy of the Historic Tacoma produced “Sacred Spaces” pamphlet One CD including: the updated Historic Property Database with, Photofile of linked photos Historic Property Inventory.mdb One CD including: the Summary Report Master digital images Research Objectives This project has several objectives: To find and document every pre-1965 structure built for religious services in the city of Tacoma. To review previous surveys of Tacoma, that have inventoried these buildings previously. To provide an outline of Tacoma’s religious architecture, both in terms of styles, architects, and broader development by denomination, neighborhood, or ethnic group, where possible. To provide recommendations for future study and suggestions for how the City of Tacoma might more effectively help provide resources for stewards of historic congregations, which are not eligible for many of the traditional preservation incentives. 5 Kingstree Studios 2010 Tacoma’s Sacred Places Survey Methodology According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Tacoma encompasses more than 62 square miles. Fifty of these acres are land, while the remaining portion is in Commencement Bay. The City of Tacoma’s GIS Analysis and Data Services pulled records for every building constructed before 1966 listed with a LU6910 (Religious Services) code. Approximately 187 tax parcels were identified on an excel sheet prepared by the city. To create a usable map plotting these properties, GIS Analysis and Data Services then made a grid overlay of sixteen squares. The squares (numbered from A1-4, B1-4, C1-4, and D1-4) have varying numbers of properties, for example the D-2 square covered portions of Commencement Bay and the Port of Tacoma, and had no buildings within the survey parameters. Other grids, like C- 2, overlaid a substantial portion of downtown, which had more than three dozen historic religious buildings due to the development age of this sector. The advantage of this system was the ability to clearly break each portion of the city into a unique location with consistent acreage. This prevented sites showing up on multiple maps and made certain that every portion of the city was covered. The disadvantage of this system is that it is not neighborhood based, with some settlement areas divided in half by random grid lines, making it more challenging to see and track development patterns. Each map grid was tracked individually, with several grids surveyed each week. The majority of the properties were visited between April 22nd and May 29th, 2009. Return trips to some sites were made at later dates to accommodate a need for additional photography or clarification of building locations and details. Volunteer effort made it possible to confirm GIS data with both the Pierce County Tax Assessor Records and the Tacoma Public Library’s On-Line Building Index. Cross-referencing between the various databases (and period newspaper accounts located through the library’s data base) helped correct dates and in some cases addresses on the original excel sheet. The City of Tacoma’s interest in tracking (when possible) parsonages, religious schools, and other auxiliary buildings common for large religious campuses, led to identifying additional tax parcels for some sites. When an institution has multiple buildings on one site, with one mailing address, these are recorded as one entry in DAHP’s database. If an institution had different mailing addresses for these buildings, each building was given its own entry, per direction from DAHP. This shuffling of buildings, combined with the addition of some sites not listed in the original GIS database has resulted in a final survey number of 150 sites. Some buildings were removed from the survey after site visits indicated the structures were not originally built for religious use (some were vintage commercial spaces that have since been converted). A total of 13 buildings were removed under these circumstances. In some cases, buildings were added to 6 Kingstree Studios 2010 Tacoma’s Sacred Places the database as field research located structures missed in the original GIS excel sheet. Five notable buildings constructed post-1965, Grace Lutheran (1968), the sanctuary of Temple Beth El (1968), Christ Episcopal (1969), St. Charles Borromeo (1969) and the Salvation Army Church (1969) were included in this survey due to their unique physical presence and/or the significance of their architects. Grace Lutheran, Christ Episcopal and St. Charles are part of larger church complexes with older buildings. This survey was funded and professionally staffed as a reconnaissance level survey.