COURTESY OF LAWTON GOWEY
	This early view of Taylor Memorial Church was photographed soon after the simple parish was constructed in 1887 at the southeast corner of Thomas and Birch streets. In 1895, when many city streets PAUL DORPAT were renamed, Birch was changed to Taylor. Many of our historical street names were then dropped for numbers — thereby losing all allusion to our community's past. The Best Western Executive Inn is the most recent resident of the site.

Taylor Avenue runs north from Denny Way through David and Louisa Denny's pioneer claim and continues, with interruptions, for about a mile and half before it stops in the greenbelt above Aurora Avenue on the east flank of Queen Anne Hill. It got its name from this little church at its southeast corner with Thomas Street, and the church was named in memory of the Rev. Frank Taylor.

Taylor, a young pastor from Guilford, Conn., began his ministry at Plymouth Congregational Church on Jan. 18, 1884. "The Path We Came By," a parish history published in 1937, recalls, "The entire membership at once proceeded to fall in love with him and his young wife." Early that summer Taylor was killed in a hunting accident. The church history continues, "The young people who had adored him stripped the summer gardens of flowers to decorate the church for his funeral."

By the evidence of his daily journal, parishioner David Denny was as likely to stay home as to venture into town on Sunday morning to hear the preacher. So in 1887 he and Louisa donated the land for Taylor Memorial Church in part so they could attend services closer to home. David also liked to sing. His daughter, Emily, recalled that he had a "fine ringing tenor voice and could carry a tune very well." Taylor Memorial became the first "daughter church" for Plymouth Congregational.

During the 1880s, as the booming city quickly moved north to their claim, the Denny family also gave land for Denny Park and the first permanent residence of Seattle's first charity, the Seattle Children's Home. While the park and the charity (now on Queen Anne Hill) have survived, Taylor Memorial Church did not. It disbanded in 1904 or 1905 (the records are not clear), although the sanctuary continued to be used for a few years.