The Islanders Build a Sanctuary
In June 1885, the residents of Vashon Island came together to hand-build a new Methodist church with timber from their own land.
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 people of Vashon have great reason for rejoicing. A memorable epoch in the history of this beautiful island marks its progress by the erection of our new Methodist Episcopal Church. Early in the morning our pastor, Rev. F. Ailward, was on the ground getting things in apple shape for the raising. The people soon arriving, log after log went up by the strong arms of forty or more willing workmen, until the top plates were ready for their roofing places. Then mothers, wives, daughters and children vied with each other in raising to their places the heavy cap plates of the building; love and good will, we trust, being the crown that closed the day's doings. The church, when finished, will be the strongest and solidest structure of the kind in the Puget Sound Conference, the logs being eight inches thick, some twelve to twenty inches wide, and every log dovetailed. The size of the building is 24x40 feet, and from floor to ceiling 18 feet. When finished, it will be an ornament of solidity, and the first M. E. Church of Seattle need not be ashamed of her child.
“Log after log went up by the strong arms of forty or more willing workmen... mothers, wives, daughters and children vied with each other in raising to their places the heavy cap plates.”
This community-driven construction project reflects the long history of Vashon Island's self-reliance. While housing today is often a matter of private equity, the 1885 'raising' reminds us that building infrastructure used to be a physical, communal act of faith and mutual aid.
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