A successful businessman, Pease convinced the New York Conference to send a Free Methodist pastor to Seattle, and he paid the $200 one-way fare and the $40-a-month salary for the Rev. John Glen.
Glen initially held services in a home until the congregation moved into the church on Second, Cathey said in a press release. "By 1883, the con-gregation moved to Pine Street," she wrote.
A new church was built at Pine Street and Terry Avenue in 1901, and it was reported to be "nicely carpeted, handsomely furnished, lighted by electricity and heat-ed by a modern hot air furnace," according to the press release.
The Pine Street church was sold in 1906 when the First Free Methodist Church joined the Second Free Methodist Church and moved to the church's present location in Queen Anne, Cathey wrote.
The land for the church is on a portion of five acres of a "choice garden plot" Free Methodist Nils B. Petersen donated in 1891 for use as the Seattle Seminary, which later became Seattle Pacific University.
Petersen had homesteaded in the area in 1873, and the land was donated to the seminary with the guarantee that the seminary would train missionaries, Cathey found in her research.
Wilson Hall, the children's center at the current church, was built in 1949, the present sanctuary was built in 1956, and the Robert M. Fine Center was added in 1994, she wrote.
The Free Methodist denomination split off from the original Methodist denomination because the old organization would not take a stand against slavery, Brann said.
The Free Methodist also objected to the prevalent practice at the time of selling pew space, she said. "The poor and disenfranchised were cut off."
And the Free Methodist Church was also one of the first to ordain women as ministers, Brann added.
Around 800 people call the church home, among whom are 150 SPU students, she said.
"That's pretty good for an old church in a city."[[In-content Ad]]
