The Sermon and the Station: Seattle’s First Constitutional Clash
When the city allowed a church to use a decommissioned fire station for worship, it sparked a sharp constitutional debate between a secularist group and the Mayor.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The letter of C. B. Reynolds, secretary of the Washington Secular Union, protesting against the use of the Queen Anne engine house for religious services by St. Mark's Episcopal church, which was addressed to Mayor Ronald on April 23, was met by him with the following reply: 'I should be very sorry, indeed, if we have by such act violated the constitution of our state. The section of the constitution invoked provides that no public money or property shall be appropriated for or applied to any religious worship, exercise or instruction. I am unable to see wherein, by the act of which you complain, any public money or property has been appropriated for or applied to any religious worship. The building is unused by the city for any purpose; it belongs to the whole people. We have permitted certain persons to use it for a few days, but we have not appropriated it for religious worship.' To this, Mr. Reynolds rejoined: 'It is the principle involved that called forth our protest. Decidedly then, the building should not be appropriated to the exclusive use of a favored few for the avowed purpose of religious worship and sectarian instruction. In your official capacity as chief magistrate of the city, you should be the especial guardian of the rights of all citizens, Jew, Gentile, Christian or Liberal.'
“Decidedly then it should not be appropriated to the exclusive use of a favored few for the avowed purpose of religious worship and sectarian instruction.”
Conflicts over the intersection of public property and religious use remain a flashpoint in modern Seattle politics. The Queen Anne fire house mentioned here was part of the city's early infrastructure; today, debates over public space often shift to parks or community centers, mirroring this 1892 tension over whether city assets belong to everyone or a favored few.
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