Overview

This Scandinavian congregation was in operation in 1896, meeting in a building at 6th Avenue and Virginia Street. (See "In the Churches,"Seattle Times, 08/08/1896, p.3.)

Building History

Historian of Seattle's Scandinavian community, Kristine Leander, has said this of the Norwegian-Danish Baptist Church: "Norwegian-American historian Kristine Leander has written: "The Norwegian-Danish Baptist Church was organized in 1889 with 37 Scandinavian members. It was later named the Stewart Street Baptist church before the congregation disbanded and the building torn down. The pastor for 37 years was the Reverend Anders Mehus." (See Kristine Leander, Norwegian Seattle, [Charleston, SC: Arcadia Press, 2008], p. 40.) The church had its incorporation in 1892. (See Allen Weir, Secretary of State, "Domestic Corporations, Territory: Seattle," State of Washington, Second Report of the Secretary of State, Washington Public Documents, [Olympia: O.C. White, State Printer, 1893], p. 141.)

The Scandinavian Baptist Pacific Northwest Convention in the US had eight churches when it held its first conference in Tacoma, WA in 12/1891. The Convention Board had annual meetings from at least 1891-1893. In 1893, it wrote of the Norwegian-Danish Church in Seattle: "The coming of Rev. C.W. Finwall from St. Paul, Minn., to the Norwegian-Danish church in Seattle has been a source of great encouragement, and we believe it will be the means, under God, of changing threatened defeat into glorious victory for Christ and the Baptists of this nationality. He has started a promising mission in Ballard, where there is at present no other preaching for this people in their own language." (See John Clapp Baker, Baptist History of the North Pacific Coast, [Boston: American Baptist Publication Society, 1912], p. 334.)

PCAD id: 21725