Thornton Creek Commons – Seattle, Washington

History

St. George Episcopal to Thornton Creek Commons

The Thornton Creek Commons site has a rich community history as St. George Episcopal Church was located there from 1959 to 2011, when the decision to close St. George was made by the congregation who voted on the closure due to declining membership, transferring the ownership of the property to the Diocese of Olympia. The property was evaluated by the Episcopal Diocese Board of Directors and determined the best course would be to develop the site as single family homes.

In 2016 The Cottage Company entered into an agreement with the Diocese of Olympia to develop the property. Permitting was lengthy due to Seattle’s critical area designation of the site, given the proximity to the north fork of Thornton Creek. After a number of years of process and approvals required by the City of Seattle, permits to build the nine homes at Thornton Creek Commons were issued in Fall 2022. Construction began in January 2023.

The existing 8,000 sf church structure was deconstructed in July 2022 by Sledge Seattle, working with The Cottage Company. Over 90% of the church structure was deconstructed, salvaged and diverted from the landfill. A significant amount of dimensional lumber from the existing church building was used in the framing of the nine new homes and garages, plus more than 6,000 square feet of tongue and groove solid wood flooring was milled from the salvaged church wood, and used as wood flooring in four of the nine new homes.

The original old growth, hand split cedar siding from the church building was reconditioned and used as siding on the new detached garages. Plant materials, stone benches and other relics from the original St. George Church structure and grounds were carefully salvaged and remain today in a peaceful Meditation Garden created in the arboretum-like community open space for owners to enjoy and reflect in the history of this unique & special site.