The Church That Leased Its Own Hypocrisy
In 1876 Seattle, a wealthy Presbyterian congregation found itself trapped by its own real estate deals, forced to collect rent from two saloons operating directly beneath their prayer hall.
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.
There are two gin-mills in full blast on the site of the old Fulton street Church—one on Fulton street the other on Ann. The godly men who leased the property for stores did not take precautions to put a clause in the lease keeping these unholy things out. The old Fulton-street prayer meeting is still kept up in a mild way in the chapel up stairs, just at the hour when these liquor-shops are driving their heaviest business.
The other day an old seacaptain, who had long been an attendant at the prayer meeting, went into the office of the consistory of the church to remonstrate against the rental of the property for such unhallowed purposes. He was told by the treasurer that the church had no option in the matter, having leased the ground on which the liquor-shops stand.
The seacaptain was justly indignant. He said, 'We meet here to pray for the putting down of all that sort of thing, and here you go and have two of them, right under us when we are praying.' To remove the disgrace from the church, the consistory of this wealthy corporation should immediately get rid of these two dens of evil, either by buying out the leases or in some other way.
This 1876 account of a church trapped by its own commercial leases offers a striking parallel to modern debates over mixed-use zoning and the gentrification of historic neighborhoods. Just as the Presbyterian consistory was financially bound to keep saloons beneath their sanctuary, today's religious institutions and non-profits often face similar dilemmas when balancing mission-driven spaces with the economic realities of maintaining expensive urban properties.
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