Our members meetings offer the opportunity to learn about programs and projects of interest taking place in our community and through the auspices of Historic Seattle. These events are held at sites of historic or architectural interest, and a short quarterly business meeting precedes the program.
The Very Reverend Steve Thomason, Dean and Rector, welcomes us to Saint Mark’s Cathedral, where Alan Davidson shares his research into its early years. Davidson was an academic radiologist who in retirement shifted his research and authorship interests from the kidney and urinary tract to family history. Walking into St. Mark’s Cathedral as a recently arrived new parishioner, he was fascinated by both the unusual architecture and its striking state of incompleteness. Seeking an explanation, he found that no proper study existed of its 125-year history. He offered to undertake such a study, the Dean accepted, and he is now in his third year of a long-term work in progress. He focuses on the striking demographic and economic growth of Seattle during the 1880s that caused a group of Trinity’s lay leaders to form a second Episcopal parish in Seattle (1889), the contributions of the new parish to Seattle’s religious life and civic affairs, and the evolving residential patterns that prompted a relocation of the church to First Hill (1897).
Photo credit: Costello Collection, Seattle Public Library
Cost:
Free/Donation