One church gets condos; will another get bulldozers?

With its beige stucco cladding, red clay-tile roof and arched windows and doors, a Christian Scientist church stands out among the houses lining the streets of a quiet Queen Anne neighborhood.

Although the city considers the building worthy of listing on the National Register of Historic Places, it likely will be torn down early next year. On Capitol Hill, another Christian Scientist church — grand in appearance with its gray stone façade, ornamental plaster work and stained-glass windows — is about to be remodeled into condominiums.

Why is one beautiful old church building ordained for doom while another gets a second life?

Since church buildings are exempt from landmark designations that have spared many historic structures from demolition, their fates often come down to whether there is enough passion and resolve to save them.

Those who care most about the building — its congregation, neighborhood and city — all have to want preservation to happen, or it probably won't. A restoration-minded developer then has to step up and take a risk.

The new life that awaits First Church of Christ, Scientist on Capitol Hill "required a little bit of a labor of love on the part of everyone involved," said Ryan Thompson, of the Thompson Team real-estate group marketing the condo development.

But saving a church building never is easy. A citywide effort to preserve downtown Seattle's First United Methodist Church sanctuary appears to be successful — but it took about a decade to work itself out.

And resolve is not always enough. Circumstances have worked against members of Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist on Queen Anne, who insist they tried hard to find a buyer who would save the building.

But the building's poor condition, the existing single-family zoning and an absence of off-street parking combined to scare buyers away, members say. Any buyer also faced the prospect of a battle with the building's close neighbors, who are split over whether preserving it is in their best interests.

"We would have loved to have someone come along who could have reused the building," said Mabel Adkins, a church member. "We waited almost two years and no one came along."

Queen Anne church

Opened in 1926 at 2555 Eighth Ave. W., Seventh Church is both architecturally and historically significant, according to a 2000 city survey of Seattle's historic resources.

It was designed by the same architects behind the Sorrento Hotel, the Corner Market Building at Pike Place Market, Harborview Medical Center, three branch libraries and several University of Washington fraternity and sorority houses.

Adkins said the congregation tried to sell the building about 15 years ago with no luck. With membership dwindling — a dilemma facing other urban churches — and the building needing costly repairs, members put out feelers again about two years ago.

"We all think it's a beautiful building, but there is so much that has to be done to it to bring it up to code," she said. "We heard from people with a lot of ideas for reusing the building — a concert hall, a private school, condos — but for each of those, it was going to be either too costly or too hard to get permission through the city.

"So when we had no one else, we took this offer from a builder."

After the church is demolished, the builder, TM New Homes, plans to take possession of the lot and put up four single-family houses.

Tyler Crone, who lives next to the church, said some neighbors want to preserve the building but others fear the effects a potential new use could have on traffic, parking and noise.

"This building has been a perfect neighbor — almost nobody uses it and it's beautiful to look at," Crone said, adding that rarely more than 10 people attend Sunday services there.

Although the lot is zoned for single-family homes, the developer still could face opposition from the neighborhood because it is seeking permits to build four houses on a lot that, under existing rules, is big enough for only three.

"Some of us are worried about the alternative if we organize as a neighborhood to try to shoot down this developer," Crone said. "No one wants the building left there to rot."

Both the Queen Anne Community Council and the Queen Anne Historical Society are asking the city to slow down the demolition-permitting process so that alternate uses for the building can be more thoroughly explored.

Publicity over the proposed demolition could yield new offers to preserve the building. But Adkins said the church is both legally and honorably bound to the current offer, which is contingent on the city allowing the builder to put up four houses instead of three.

Capitol Hill church

Today, First Church moves out of the building at 16th Avenue East and East Denny Way, where the congregation began in 1911.

Church members sold the building in September to developers who later this year will fit 12 to 19 condos within its shell, taking great pains to maintain the former church's architectural grandeur — going as far as to reuse some white-oak pews as doors, trim and benches for breakfast nooks.

The property sold for $1.1 million — but could have earned twice that if sold as an empty lot. The church's parking lot, which is a smaller footprint, sold for $2.3 million.

Tom Haak, church treasurer, said members didn't consider offers from anyone with designs on demolition.

"The division that would have resulted among us if we pursued the option of selling the property as a scraped lot wouldn't have been worth even $10 million," he said.

In making its decision, Haak said, the congregation also took into account that the neighborhood cherishes the building, too. "We wouldn't be good neighbors if we tore it down, especially since we were in a position to save it," he said.

It helped that the lot is zoned for multifamily use, which allows the developers to build condos without needing an upzone — unlike the church on Queen Anne.

Since the building is no longer a religious institution, it is no longer exempt from landmark protections that govern all restoration work and thus add expense to the job. The building is structurally sound — another factor that led to its preservation — but a seismic retrofit is required.

Joel Lavin, a partner in the development, is trying something innovative by erecting concrete walls that will separate the units as well as support the structure in the event of an earthquake.

Pouring concrete inside the building brings a slew of construction challenges. Still, Lavin is eager to get going on the project.

"It would be much easier to build new townhomes on this lot, but this is once in a lifetime," he said. "We came to this building, thought this was the coolest thing ever and said, 'Let's do it!' It's a risk, but it's compelling work."

Stuart Eskenazi: 206-464-2293 or seskenazi@seattletimes.com