Shoreline Preservation Society awarded 4Culture grant to pursue National Register of Historic Places for Naval Chapel at Fircrest

Naval Chapel at Fircrest

Shoreline Preservation Society proudly announces it has again been awarded a 4Culture Special Projects Grant of $5,500. The grant will fund the nomination work of the now Landmarked Historic Naval Hospital Chapel to the State and National level for the National Register of Historic Places.

The beautiful Chapel was built in 1944 at the height of WWII in the Pacific by the US Navy, to provide refuge for the 2600 wounded Marines and Sailors treated on site at the Hospital.

It was built under the command of Captain Joel T Boone, a multiple medal-winning Physician who believed in the healing power of nature and sited the Chapel in the native Northwest Forest on a hillside overlooking the campus. It is the very first Interdenominational Naval Hospital Chapel in America.

Shoreline Preservation Society is an all-volunteer WA Nonprofit, which worked through the 2020-21 Shoreline Historical Commission to Landmark the Chapel and 2.6 acres of surrounding native forest, with assistance of 4Culture and expert historians at Northwest Vernacular.

Applying for the National Register has several levels, including to the State DAHP and then to the National Parks Service. The entire Seattle Naval Hospital site was declared eligible for the National Register, according to a 2001 City Master Development attempt. Since then, many of the original facilities were torn down. But there are still about 15 of the original buildings on site.

SPS is working to preserve as much of the remaining historic forest at Fircrest as possible and create a museum to commemorate the unique history that was built there by the US Navy during WWII. SPS wishes to commemorate other important values such as the ongoing work at Fircrest, the ecological legacy such as the path of Hamlin Creek, and the early Native American history of the site.