Emmanuel History
The Historic Village Church
Emmanuel Church, Eastsound, established in 1885, is one of the oldest church buildings in the San Juan Islands. Having stood for more than a hundred years as a focal point of Eastsound, visitors who enter the village are impressed by the historic little church set behind a white fence.
The plan of the church building is a basic cruciform and Victorian in style. Some of the furnishings in use today came around Cape Horn. New carpeting and new pews were added in 1995.
The history of Emmanuel Church is a tale of the history of the entire Island and can be read in more detail in an article titled “Historical Background” by Marjorie Bevlin. In 1885 Sidney Gray was appointed to serve as a lay missionary on Orcas Island. The young Englishman’s vision of “Village de Haro” centered around the church. For many years this truly was the case and the activities of the Island were reflected in or initiated by the Church. During the years of economic lows in the Island, the church building was kept in order by the St. Agnes Guild ladies- who saw that the building had essential repairs and was cleaned for occasional services.
The adjoining Parish Hall was added to the west side of the nave in 1951. In later years the sacristy was expanded and furnished with new cabinets. The Parish Hall was used by groups for meetings, classes, dances, celebrations, dinners and counseling as well as church school. St. Agnes Guild continued to be a very active support of the work of the parish. Market Day in July was joined by a clothing sale in the fall. The latter served the local population by recycling good clothing and linens at very low prices to those who needed them. In 1979 the building to the East of the Churchyard was purchased and became known as Benson Hall. The addition of a church office, Rector’s office, meeting rooms and Church School rooms allowed for expanded service to the people of Orcas Island.
On St. Valentine’s Day in 2002, Benson Hall was removed from its site by barge and sailed to Lopez Island. Construction began on a new, two-story parish hall to better serve our growing congregation. The building is magnificent and beautifully finished with a cathedral ceiling, which matches the beams in the church, and picture windows overlooking the Sound.
Although unmarked, the lawn areas and flower gardens around the church are also burial sites used in the late 1880’s. More recent burials of ashes are marked by small plaques in the flowerbeds or contained in the new Columbarium associated with the Parish Hall. The grounds of the church are planted and nurtured by devoted gardeners and attract much attention from both visitors and local people.
Church History Archives
(a modest beginning)
Emmanuel is beginning to convert documents relating to church history to digitized form for safe, long-term storage and to make them more accessible to everyone. Please take a look below at our first article about Father Benson, lovingly referred to as “the Seaborne Circuit Rider”, in this September 1960 issue of The Episcopalian. Check back to see what we add next!
