Tolliver Temple Church of God in Christ – 2024 Community Advocacy Award
Historic Seattle’s Annual Preservation Celebration is coming up on September 19, 2024. We’ll celebrate the projects and people that help amplify our mission. Today, we feature Tolliver Temple Church of God in Christ, the 2024 Community Advocacy Award recipient.
Congratulations Tolliver Temple!
The Community Advocacy Award goes to Tolliver Temple Church of God in Christ for its proactive effort to seek landmark protection for its historic building, ensuring that a piece of Central District history lives on in a community that continues to experience considerable change, both culturally and physically.
In 2023, the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board voted unanimously to designate the Tolliver Temple Church of God in Christ as a landmark under all six criteria. Only a handful of Seattle landmarks have achieved this remarkable honor (Pacific Science Center, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, and the Space Needle are a few examples).
Located at 1915 E. Fir St., the historic building conveys layers of history connected to its neighborhood. Originally the Sephardic Bikur Holim synagogue erected by Turkish-Sephardic Jewish immigrants in 1929 for religious, educational, social, and cultural purposes, “it is one of the few clearly visible vestiges of Jewish life left in the Central District. Since 1963, it has served as the home of Tolliver Temple Church of God in Christ, a predominately African-American congregation with roots in the Great Migration of the early 20th century. Collectively, the building reflects the stories of two independent Seattle communities that originated in the Central District and illustrates how multiple narratives can resonate from a single place.” (Seattle Landmark Nomination Report)
The road to landmark designation isn’t always easy, especially when it involves property owned by a religious entity. The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Ordinance allows any person to submit a nomination application. Owner consent is not required with one exception—properties owned by a religious entity require owner consent for nomination or an owner may voluntarily submit its own nomination application. This exception is due to State Supreme Court rulings based on the First Amendment.
The landmark nomination application for Tolliver Temple was voluntarily submitted by church leaders, members, and friends with the support and assistance of friends and members of Sephardic Bikur Holim. Contributors to the nomination effort include Edith Harrison, current church member and leader of the effort among church members on behalf of Pastor Emeritus O.J. Jenkins and alongside current Pastor Kenny Isabell and Bishop Alvin Moore; former member Rose Wallace-Croone; and members and friends of Sephardic Bikur Holim who contributed to the compilation of the nomination report—Jamie Merriman-Cohen, Stuart Eskenazi, Al Maimon, and Lilly De Jaen. Cultural resources consultant Sarah Martin prepared parts of the nomination and shepherded it through the process.
Congratulations to all.
Image courtesy of Eugenia Woo