The History of Rose Hill

The Rose Hill Church was organized in 1912 as a Union Church. A Sunday School was also organized at the same time. Church services were held at the public school building across the street from our present location at four o’clock on Sunday afternoons. When the school building burned down in June of 1921, services were held in the Community Club House.

In the summer of 1921 the First Presbyterian Church of Seattle under the leadership of Dr. Mark A. Matthews took over this body of believers making it one of their mission churches. Dr. Matthews was a strong evangelical pastor and his church at that time was the largest Protestant Church in the nation. Different ministers were sent out each week to preach the Gospel and care for the people spiritually.

A meeting was called and it was decided that a church building would be constructed on our present location. The Ladies Aid purchased the lot for the church building at a cost of $665. The new building was called the Rose Hill Presbyterian Mission Church and served as a temporary school until a new schoolhouse was built. The corner stone was laid August 14, 1921. The documents placed in the corner stone consisted of the original class books of the Sunday School, a list of subscribers to the building fund, a list of members of the church and the Ladies Aid Society, a Bible, and three copies of the Eastside Journal containing notices. With members and friends of the church making contributions of money and labor the building was completed in a very short time.

The first pastor was Rev. McDougall, followed by the Reverends Carey, Crawford, Hazlett, Isaac, McDonald, Scafe, Duffey, Edwards, Williams, Mitchell, and Amos. Most of these supply pastors were retired men.

On March 12, 1946, the Rose Hill Presbyterian Mission Church petitioned the Presbytery to become a self-governing, independent body and was granted their incorporation as the Rose Hill Presbyterian Church. On May 31, 1946, the Reverend Charles Loyer became the first pastor of the new church. He served until 1958. The church had a membership of 400 with 500 children enrolled in the Sunday School according to a news article in 1960 when the mortgage was burned. The Reverend Harlow Willard became the second pastor in 1958 and served the congregation until his retirement in 1983. The Reverend William J. Zacharda began serving the congregation in January of 1985 until his retirement in 2009.

A fire totally destroyed the church on Oct 19, 1974 with an estimated damage of $105,000. For the second time in their history the people were forced out of their place of worship. The church family was drawn closer together in this experience with a large part of the rebuilding completed by the members. The new and expanded facilities were completed in September 1976.