St. Paul Episcopal Church has graced lower Queen Anne for nearly 50 years. Though small and compact at 15 Roy St., sometimes easily missed while navigating the harried nightlife traffic, the church is quite unique, with a space-age roofline and a floating Tracker organ. And now, it’s getting a new look.
The roofline, designed and built in 1962 coinciding with the galactic nature of Century 21 designs (Space Needle) constructed for the World’s Fair that year, will remain as is. But the colored-glass windows, which were cracked and have remained so since the Nisqually earthquake of 2001, will be replaced with stained-glass windows. There will be a new altar which will be made with a six-inch slab of walnut designed by area artist Julie Speidel. Speidel will also design the new immersion font that will be placed toward the church’s enlarged foyer. The pews are being refinished and there will be new carpeting and altar furniture. Trees will be planted outside the entryway and a new sidewalk will be poured.
Construction crews are currently updating the lighting.
Rector Melissa Skelton said the project has been more than three years in the making.
“We started with a conference about holy space and that became a course then a team formed,” Skelton said. One parishioner happens to be the board president at Cornish College of the Arts, of which Speidel is a member. He asked Speidel to contribute toward the project and she agreed.
“She is just, oh wow!” Skelton said of Speidel and of the church’s fortune to get an artist to donate the work. “She’s talented.”
While the entire church has been under construction, mass has been held in the basement or the parish hall. The parish has grown from 89 to 220 members in four years. Skelton is counting on the renovation to be completed by Christmas.
October 21
St. Paul renovation to be done by Christmas
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