Seattle Landmarks: Epiphany Chapel (1911)

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Address: 3719 E Denny Way, Seattle. Ellsworth Storey (1879-1960) designed this chapel for the Epiphany Episcopal Parish in the Denny-Blaine neighborhood. He used brick and wood and diamond-shaped windows that follow the styles of several of his residences in the area. Although the building derives from an English Gothic-style, it lacks the ornamentation of traditional structures. Storey himself was a member of this parish.

Both the interior and the exterior emphasize the interplay of light and dark, and the mural and painted surfaces. The structure was covered in cedar shakes, continuing Storey's preference for native materials in his designs for the Northwest.

A larger church was later constructed for a growing congregation and the smaller chapel was retained. The Seattle City Council accepted the chapel as a Seattle Landmark on October 23, 1978 because of its distinctive architectural style and its association with Storey.

Sources:
Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, Landmarks Preservation Board, 700 Third Avenue, 4th Floor, Seattle, Washington; Lawrence Kreisman, Made to Last: Historic Preservation in Seattle and King County, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999), 66.

By Dave Wilma, April 27, 2001

This file made possible by:
The SCHOONER Project:
The Hon. Jan Drago
Seattle City Council
Seattle Department of Neighborhoods

Epiphany Chapel, (Elsworth Storey, 1911), Madrona neighborhood, Seattle, April 24, 2002
Photo by Alyssa Burrows