Marysville’s Oldest Church Gets a Second (or Third) Chance at Life
When a “for sale” sign went up in the Spring of 2023 at Marysville’s Evergreen Unitarian Fellowship, advocates for historic preservation in Marysville got nervous. The property on the corner of Fourth and Columbia is a prime piece of real estate in downtown Marysville, zoned such that a builder could construct a commercial or residential building, and turn a nice profit. This nervousness stemmed from the fact that this church is not only the oldest church in Marysville, but some argue the oldest building still standing in town. In short, the Evergreen Unitarian Fellowship building is one of the only links Marysville has left standing to its humble roots in the late nineteenth century. Its loss would not only destroy a piece of history, but it would also irrevocably sever a tie to a Marysville that is almost exclusively available in books and pictures.
Constructed as the Methodist-Episcopal Church, the building initially on the northwest corner of Third and State was dedicated in August 1891. This was just four months after Marysville was incorporated. At that time, Third and State was considered to be the far north reaches of Marysville and was somewhat far removed from the business and civic district that had formed on Front Street (now First Street) along the banks of Ebey Slough. The 6,000 square foot building Marysville residents see today on the corner of Fourth and Columbia is almost unrecognizable from the church that was constructed over 130 years ago. The building has grown with the community and changed to fit the needs of its parishioners over the last century, even moving a couple blocks in the 1940’s. Thankfully, the story of Marysville’s first church did not end with those for sale signs in 2023. This brief scare however reminds us that some things are not forever, and it's important that these historic buildings are appreciated, and that stories are told while we still have the chance. As a new church prepares to move to Fourth and Columbia, it's hard not to think about the Methodists that did the same thing, albeit a few blocks away, over a century ago.
The Methodists are Coming!
The first services held in the Marysville area by the Methodist Church took place in 1887 in a small building east of town called the Stephen’s school house. The services were held sporadically by a Reverend based out of Snohomish and usually attended by three people who didn’t even live in Marysville proper. Mary Pease, one of the original members of the Methodist-Episcopal Church recalled that you could count the number of people who claimed to be Christian in Marysville at that time on one hand. It would take three years of diligent work by the church and parishioners for Marysville to have a Reverend assigned exclusively to the town, but in 1890 one was assigned to the unincorporated community. This man, Reverend John Flynn, organized the first religious classes in Marysville’s history at the schoolhouse on Beach and 4th, better known as the Lyceum. The church was still very small, and Pease recalls none of the members even lived west of State Street at the time.
Despite the small number of congregants, Reverend Flynn’s successor W.C. Hockett, immediately began drawing up plans to build a church when he arrived in the winter of 1891. The site selected was on the corner of State and Third, which was believed to be far enough away from the hustle and bustle of Front Street that church goers could enjoy quiet services in the far north part of town. Ironically enough, this would be the reason for the church’s eventual move after World War II. With an energetic group of members, and support from the state-wide conference of Methodists, the church went up rather quickly. By August of 1891, Marysville’s first church was complete and officially dedicated. A celebration was thrown to show off the new building to the town, and it was remarked that on that day “the whole town was a church”. Reverends and Methodists from all over the area descended on Marysville to help commemorate the event, and in the evening a dinner for the entire community was held under the trees behind the church. To the community, the new Methodist Church was a glorious success, and would be a fixture in Marysville for many years to come. While things looked good on the outside, internally the group was struggling to financially maintain the massive investment that they had just made.
Good debt
Initially Reverend Hockett had estimated that the church would cost around $1,000 to construct. The plan was that on the day of dedication, the church would collect donations and subscriptions to help pay off the remaining balance, leaving the church debt free on day one. Unfortunately, this was not the case, in fact it was very far from it. Because not enough was collected on that day, the church was left with a large debt burden, and with only thirteen members at the time, paying it off proved to be a daunting task. Even as the Methodists opened their building to many other denominations for worship, and Marysville’s high school for classes, the church was unable to even pay the interest on the debt that was adding up fast.
While it was recalled that the church was thriving spiritually, it continued to struggle financially. So much so in fact, that the Conference of Methodists decided Marysville was not financially viable and that a dedicated Reverend would be removed. Marysville was then lumped in with Stanwood, and the Reverend there was to be responsible for conducting services in both towns. In the late 1890’s transportation between Stanwood and Marysville was unreliable at best, and one did not know day to day if the train would even come. This left the church without a Reverend on most Sundays, and eventually prayer meetings and Sunday school stopped all together. A Congregational Church was founded in Marysville at about this time, and many of the Methodist members began to attend their services that were being held at the Lyceum. While the Congregational Church filled the void for many in Marysville that desired spiritual nourishment, the fact remained that the Methodist Church still had an outstanding debt on their building, and they needed to figure out a way to pay it off.
By 1894 Stanwood had become too big to share its Reverend with Marysville, and the Methodist Conference opted to instead assign the Reverend at Arlington, George Frame, to Marysville as well. While it was recalled that Reverend Frame did very little to help pay off the Church’s debt, he was able to reinvigorate the Methodists in Marysville. Church attendance began to increase, and it felt as though the group was once again active. Because of this the Methodist conference decided to separate Arlington and Marysville and assign Marysville its own Reverend for the first time in nearly five years. That man was George Dimick, and he took the spiritual health that Frame had nourished and turned it into financial health as the church looked to usher in the twentieth century.
Pease described Dimick as “a good financer”, while taking good care to not disparage his competency in other realms of being a Reverend. His goal in Marysville from day one was to pay off the church’s debt and give the group financial freedom, and that is exactly what he did. Over the next three years Dimick worked diligently raising funds, cutting costs, and making sound financial decisions for the church. By 1901, a decade after its dedication, Reverend Dimick and the members of the Marysville Methodist Church held a mortgage burning and were officially debt free. Given the time it had taken to pay off, and the interest that had been accumulated over ten years, the total price for the church ballooned from its initial $1,000 to $3,000, which is a little over $100,000 today. Regardless of this, Reverend Dimick had accomplished his goal at an amazing pace, and the largest burden on the shoulders of the church had been lifted.
More Debt
With the debt gone, and a new century well underway, the Marysville Methodist Church set out to refocus its spiritual goals and tend to its community. Over the next few years, the church numbers grew, and the services offered followed suit, growing with the needs of the new congregants. By 1905 the Methodists boasted 110 members, which for a community of about 1,000 residents is a substantial number. It also must be remembered that the church started with about thirteen members just fourteen years earlier. Everything was looking up for the Methodists, so much so in fact that they decided to take a big leap of faith; put themselves in more debt.
In June of 1905, the Marysville Globe reported that due to the substantial growth in Sunday School attendance, along with youth attendance, the church needed more space. The plan was to raise the entire building, and construct a basement underneath with classrooms for additional meetings. The project was estimated to cost around $1,000, the same amount that the church had originally cost in 1891. This time however, church leadership went about the project differently. In early June 1905, the church held a special offering to raise funds for the project to be completed that summer. That offering was able to bring in about $700, leaving a $300 debt for the church to pay off. This was much less than the debt the church held at the turn of the century and showed that the organization had grown immensely over the last decade. In addition to this, the Marysville School District contracted to purchase the fill that was excavated from under the church to fill a pond on district property.
With these funds collected, work commenced on lifting the church, and constructing the basement. Initially they had hoped to be finished by the end of summer, however the project took longer than anticipated, not being completed until the end of October. Once finished, the two new classrooms added nearly 2,000 square feet to the church, and the Junior League had the honor of being the first organization to utilize the space. In addition to being behind schedule, the project also came in over budget at $1,500. Given the much better financial state of the church, this amount did not seem to worry church leadership, and the debt that was created by the addition did not seem to create any issues for the church moving forward.
Unlike the construction of the church a decade earlier, this debt was managed and paid off within the set amount of time. This left the church with more space, and in good financial health, setting the Methodists up for decades of success in Marysville.
A War and a Move
For the next forty years the Marysville Methodist Church quietly tended to the needs of its community and its congregants. The building that had been constructed in 1891 and expanded in 1905 met the needs of the growing community exceedingly well, which allowed the church’s financial health to grow along with its spiritual health. It was this financial stewardship that allowed the Methodists to take on their biggest project yet, one that would change Marysville’s cityscape, and bring the Marysville community the church they know today.
As the twentieth century marched onward Marysville grew northward. Originally, the business and civic district was confined to Front Street, where access to Ebey Slough was quick and efficient for incoming goods and mail. However, as Marysville continued to grow, businesses and residents turned their sights north. By the 1920’s, a new business district had been formed along State Street from Front (now First) to Fourth, and businesses also began to take shape along Third Street. Additionally, in 1922 the city moved City Hall from its home on Front Street to the corner of Third and Delta, a block west of the Methodist Church. This move signified the view of city leaders that the hub of activity in Marysville was moving north. In 1891 the Methodists had intentionally built their church away from the hustle and bustle of life on Front Street, but now over fifty years later they found themselves right in the middle of a thriving downtown. Something they never wanted, and still didn’t. So, after the end of World War II, they took a cue from the city, and decided to move their church.
In early 1946, the Methodist church purchased a property on the northeast corner of Fourth and Columbia known as the Terry property. The property had one small house on it that the Terry family lived in. It was also far enough off State Street that it was considered to be in a quiet residential neighborhood, much like what Third and State use to be when Marysville was incorporated. The intention of the Methodist Church was to demolish or relocate the Terry house, and then move their church building to the Terry property. The church also planned to eventually add “a large educational unit, as well as an auditorium.” While these plans would come to fruition over the better part of the next twenty years, the task currently at hand was how to move one of Marysville’s most iconic landmarks in a way that doesn’t damage the building, or the buildings it had to pass by.
By April of that year, the Methodists had already sold their property on Third and State to local businessman Cecil Crayton. Crayton’s plan was to construct a two-story office building with automobile showrooms on the ground floor and offices available for rent upstairs. All of this hinged on the church being properly removed from the site. Over the Spring and Summer months, church members and building movers from Seattle prepped the church for its move. The plan was to jack the building up off of the basement constructed in 1905, and then lower it to ground level as it had been when it was originally built. The unnecessary portions of the interior and exterior of the building that could be damaged would then be removed along with any furniture inside the building. Once stripped down to the bar bones, it would be moved to its new home three blocks east.
By Fall of that year, the Terry house had itself been relocated to Tenth and Alder, and the Methodist Church had been prepped for its move. On Wednesday, October 9th, the movers pivoted the church out from its home of 55 years onto Third Street, where a team of trucks carefully pulled it east. Along the way linemen from the power company removed powerlines, and quickly reattached them after the church had passed, making sure that the power outages caused by the move were minimal to the downtown business district. In addition to the movers, and the linemen, many curious residents gathered to watch as a building, many had known their entire lives, moved down Third Street. Taking it slow and steady, the move went off without a hitch. By that afternoon the Methodist Church had been delivered to its new home in one piece, ready to be reassembled.
Over the course of the next three months, parishioners met across the street at the Masonic Lodge, while work progressed on their newly moved church. A basement had been dug prior to the move, and work was coming along nicely to create additional classroom space downstairs, as had been the case when the building was on Third and State. Additionally, a personage was added to the front of the church as a living quarter for the Reverend and his family. With this addition, the building that Marysville residents would recognize today, began to take shape.
The work took place from October to late January of the following year. Finally, on January 26, 1947 the newly moved and remodeled Marysville Methodist Church was officially opened to the community. That Sunday the church was rededicated in front of a large crowd of church members, community members, and Methodist leaders. Former Reverends, and members were also invited to attend the ceremony, and many made the trip to Marysville to help the church celebrate. A dinner was served to the guests, along with live music, and a presentation on the history of the church was given. The Methodists had made their home on Fourth and Columbia, and even as they rededicated their building, plans for the future of the church were already being imagined.
Going West
During the 1950’s Marysville was no exception to the explosive growth in suburbs across the United States. After the end of the war, Marysville became a destination for families in western Washington, and the population grew steadily. This brought in many new families who were looking to get involved in religious life in their new town, and the Methodist church benefitted greatly from this. Now settled in a quieter part of town, and consistently growing, it didn’t take long for the Methodists to once again embark on more upgrades to their building.
In February 1954, the Methodist Church made their expansion announcement to the community in the Marysville Globe. The article reported that a unanimous vote of church leadership had been taken to expand the building by extending the sanctuary 24 feet west toward Columbia Ave. The purpose was to add more capacity to the main meeting area of the church. In addition to this, the church would be improving the current chancel, adding a new pulpit and lecture, adding more seating and installing new seating for the choir, and a new balcony. Plans also included the addition of screens to the sanctuary for use during services. Downstairs, the plans called for an enlarged basement with additional classrooms, and exterior improvements, mostly consisting of work on the steeple, and a new spire. Finally, a new layer of brick was planned for the outside of the building. The estimated cost for this work was reported to be just over $20,000 (about $230,000 today).
Just as had been the case with previous upgrades, the process moved quickly. By March of that year the Methodist Church reported that $13,000 had been raised toward the upgrades, and that the start of construction was imminent. Services were once again moved to the Masonic Lodge across the street, and in May construction on the expanded church had begun. From there the work moved without issue through the summer and into the fall, with a formal dedicated of the newly expanded portion of the church in November of that year. When all was said and done, the project left the church with much more space for its growing congregation and did not leave the church with any outstanding debt. The finished product is the modern church that many Marysville residents would recognize today, with a tall steeple, and iconic brick exterior.
The final upgrade to the church took place a few years later in 1961, when additional classroom space was added to the north side of the building. From then on, the building was as it stands today. The small church built in the quiet part of Marysville just after incorporation, was now a large landmark building in the middle of a growing suburb.
The More the Merrier
With the 1961 addition of classroom space to the north, the Marysville Methodist Church has expanded as much as it physically could on Fourth and Columbia. With city streets on two sides, a home on the other, and a necessary parking lot to the north, there didn’t seem to be anywhere else for the building to grow. Initially, this was no problem, as the expansions in the 1950’s and 1960’s provided ample space for the church that served a booming community. The sanctuary proved to be large enough for Sunday services, and the classroom space served the congregation well. For the next thirty years, the building with all its expansions and upgrades was a suitable home for one of Marysville’s original churches. However, as the twenty first century came into view, and Marysville continued its march to the north and east, reality set in for the Church that now served about 300 members. They needed more space than their current location could provide.
After much consideration of what to do, and how to move forward the decision was reached in 1988 to build a new church in. This meant selling the church that had been the home of Marysville’s Methodists for nearly 100 years. With a decision made, the Methodists set out to accomplish two goals:
- Find a buyer for their current church.
- Find a suitable place to build a new church.
As luck would have it, a solution to the first goal seemed to find the Methodist Church quite quickly. At about this time, the Evergreen Unitarian Fellowship had outgrown its rented space in Everett and want to purchase a building somewhere in Snohomish County. Leadership from the two organizations were brought together, and the Unitarians agreed to purchase the Methodist church for $325,000 ($763,000 today). While this part came easy, it was the second goal that would prove to be difficult for the Methodists.
Finding property was not the issue. The Methodists decided on a five-acre spot on 64th Street right in the heart of recent residential development in eastern Marysville. With a buyer identified, and a property purchased, things seemed full steam ahead, however then the task of actually constructing the new church began, and obstacles began to appear left and right. The first being a sewer moratorium that the City of Marysville had recently put into place because of the boom in residential development. The next problem arose when it was discovered there may be wetlands on the property that was intended for the new church. Finally, the original plans that were drawn up did not take into account new earthquake standards that were now required. Because of all this, the plans for the new Methodist Church were put on hold while things could be sorted out. This did not change the fact however that the Unitarians had purchased the church and were chomping at the bit to move into their new home.
The two churches went back to the negotiating table in 1989 to come up with a temporary solution while the Methodists worked on getting their construction up and running. That solution ended up being the most obvious one, the two churches would just share the building. Starting on Easter Sunday 1990, the Marysville Methodist Church, and the Evergreen Unitarian Fellowship began sharing the building that was now owned by the latter. The Methodist Congregation moved one of their two Sunday services across the street to the Masonic Lodge once again, and the two split up classroom space throughout the week for small groups and classes. For the next year, the two occupied the same building, which created some uncomfortable times for both groups. It was especially difficult as the Unitarians began to remove Christian symbols from the building, and the Methodists continued to worship there. Annie Foerster, Reverend for the Unitarians described the situation like “selling your house and staying there and watching the new owners repaint the walls.” However awkward the situation was, in the end both the Methodists and the Unitarians had nothing but praise for each other's groups. Reveling in the fact that they found each other when they were both in need of a change, and that they made the most of an uncomfortable period of time. By Thanksgiving 1991 the Methodist Church on 64th was complete, and the Unitarians were the sole occupant of the church on Fourth and Columbia. After 100 years, the Methodist Church no longer belonged to the Methodists.
The Methodists are Coming Back! (kind of)
From the 1990’s through the turn of the century, the Unitarians became a fixture of downtown Marysville. The congregation was diligent in keeping the yard and flowerbeds clean, and for a period of time they installed a community garden in the parking lot of their church. Most Marysville residents who lived in the newly constructed housing developments east of downtown drove or walked by the church throughout their daily lives not knowing the storied history of the building, now painted its iconic green. The Evergreen Unitarian Fellowship flourished in Marysville, and they were an integral part of early twenty-first century Marysville, but as was the case with the Methodists who came before them, all good things must come to an end. This end though was sped up by global pressures beyond anyone’s control.
In March of 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the world and forced churches to stop in-person meetings for months, and in some cases years. As was the case for many, if not all churches, attendance numbers at the Unitarian Church never fully recovered from the pandemic. With numbers declining, and a new reliance on zoom services, the Evergreen Unitarian Fellowship made the decision to sell the church in 2023. While many in Marysville thought that this was the beginning of a horrible story that would end with the iconic church being torn down to make way for apartments or a strip mall, it ended up being the exact opposite. The sale of the old Methodist Church ended up being a new lease on life for the old and storied piece of Marysville history. In late Summer of that year, signs went up indicating that LifePoint Church out of Lake Stevens had purchased the property and intended to rehab it and plant a church at that location. This was especially fitting, as LifePoint Church initially started out as a Methodist Church. With that began the process of turning the facility back into a Christian church, work that is anticipated to be wrapped up by December of 2023. For the time being, the original Marysville Methodist Church is safe.
It is interesting that this church does not register to many in Marysville as a historic building. To most it is the green church behind Walgreens that they pass by on their way to work but have never really given a second thought about. This could be in part because of all the renovations that have taken place over the years that have stripped much of its original regalia. However just below this mid-century surface is a building that has watched Marysville for nearly its entire existence. A building that grew with the community and moved with the community. Stories of weddings, baptisms, and birthday parties in this church are a common occurrence when the building is brought up in conversation. As more and more of Marysville’s history goes by the wayside, it's important to embrace what we have left not because something being old inherently makes it special, but because most historic structures like this one are a part of the culture and fabric of a community. Yes, the Marysville Methodist Church is a vital connection to a past that we are rapidly losing, but it is also a part of the Marysville that so many know and love. That is why saving this church, and buildings like it is important to Marysville’s future, just as much as its past.
