by Friends of 9^th Avenue NW Park History Committee

^{Misconceptions and rumors about the history of Ballard’s new park at 7028 9th Avenue NW have circulated for years, perhaps because the former owners mostly kept to themselves and practiced a faith that outsiders considered eccentric. Incorporated in 1922, the Seventh Elect Church in Israel had no connection to the Love Israel commune. It was a small sect, and by 1990 there were only a few elderly members who lived on the property. They quietly practiced their religion, effectively walled off from the neighbors by towering holly and laurel hedges. Since the city purchased the property in April 2008, the hedges have been drastically cut back and will eventually go, but the stories persist.}

^{We haven’t been able to conclusively prove or disprove the neighborhood lore.  But after poring through contemporary newspapers and various documents, we feel that it’s reasonable to conclude that the large building had in fact been a downtown hotel that was moved to the property—most likely in pieces—in the early 1920s. Had it been a brothel? Its guests were probably no different, one way or another, from those of other single-room-occupancy hotels, which catered to single workers in Seattle’s timber, fishing, and other industries. Was the deceased founder ever kept (preserved) in the basement in anticipation of the Second Coming? Not according to newspaper accounts of the day, although the actual story of Daniel Salwt’s passing in 1929 is curious enough.}

^{The Seventh Elect Church is not in itself historically significant. Nor are the church buildings, according to the architectural firm that researched the property for the city. But the church comes directly out of the nineteenth-century American millennial culture that also produced the Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Beyond that, it’s an interesting bit of Ballard history.}

^{Born in 1845 in Indiana, Daniel Salwt (originally Sult) was a Midwestern farmer-turned-preacher, who supposedly studied with the House of David, a Christian millennial sect founded in 1903 in Michigan. Calling himself “God’s seventh messenger,” Salwt believed it was his destiny to gather together the 144,000 Elect of God in preparation for the endtime. According to one of the publications he wrote about himself, he left the Midwest and traveled across the West by foot and by bicycle, preaching as he went.}

^{Arriving in Seattle around 1910, Salwt chose the “heights above Ballard” as the site for his Seventh Elect Church in Israel. He lived in the neighborhood, first as a boarder at 7056 9th Avenue NW and later at 818 West 70th (now NW 70th). Within a few years, around 1921, he had gathered enough followers and resources to build (or rebuild) the large communal residence at 7028 9th Avenue NW.}

^{Estimates of the number of Salwt followers varied from about twenty-five, on average, to several hundred. A court record from 1932 describes them as mainly day laborers, including shingle weavers, plasterers, and mechanics. On joining, they surrendered wages and other property to the church, to be used for the gathering of the Elect. Members earned additional income for the church by installing sprinkler systems throughout the city that were designed by Salwt himself.}

^{The church required that members embrace a celibate and vegetarian lifestyle, and men were forbidden to cut their beards and hair. The colony planted fruit trees and raised vegetables; there are still plum, apple, fig, cherry, and apricot trees on the property, as well as large raised beds at the north end. They also planted flower gardens, described as recently as 1970 as “extensive, neat, and well tended.”}

^{Salwt, who stood over six feet, and his followers attracted enough attention to be mentioned in an article about Seattle that appeared in The New Republic in 1928. The “Long-Haired Preachers” apparently were a familiar sight downtown, where they preached at the corner of Fourth and Pike and handed out pamphlets. Members of the Salvation Army, who had already claimed the Fourth Avenue corner, occasionally clashed with Seventh Elect Church members.}

^{Salwt’s death at the age of eighty-four in 1929 brought unwelcome publicity for the church. Believing that Salwt was immortal, his followers were confident he would rise and would not release the body for two days. Health officials then agreed to delay embalming for one more day while Salwt’s followers kept vigil at a local mortuary. In the meantime, reporters had descended on 9th Avenue. Among the stories that surfaced in the press was the revelation that, unlike his celibate followers, Salwt had had an attractive young female companion, designated his “queen.”}

^{Salwt’s death also precipitated a struggle over the church’s assets. At the time of his death, the assets were held exclusively in his name and included both bank accounts and real estate, estimated to be worth $200,000. Real estate holdings reportedly included the church property, property in Michigan, “oil lands” in Montana, lots in Green Lake and Port Angeles, a ranch near Tacoma, and “rooming house properties” in Vancouver, BC. Salwt had left no will, and disillusioned former church members attempted to reclaim their property. The courts, however, determined that property and wages surrendered to the church were freewill offerings and as such could not be reclaimed. Two years later, in 1934, a group of 45 former church members sued for the return of their property and the dissolution of the church, but King County Superior Court decided once again in the church’s favor.}

^{Afterward, for the most part, the church existed peacefully in the neighborhood and stayed out of the public eye. Then, in 1978, the elderly church officers sued their business manager of ten years, Gerald L. Rogers, for the return of church assets. In 1981, a King County Superior Court judge ordered Rogers to make restitution of almost $2,000,000 to the church, money that he had stolen and used to his own benefit. Rogers was later convicted of multiple counts of securities, tax, and mail fraud.}

^{The last active members of the Seventh Elect Church living at the property were members of the Wold family. Caretakers looked after the property until April 2008, when it was purchased from the church by the City of Seattle. Although the large church building stands empty, the farmhouse is currently occupied by a city caretaker.}

^Sources

^{Ancestry.com (U.S. census records); Ballard Historical Society; City of Seattle, Department of Planning and Development; Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington (web site); Puget Sound Regional Archives; Seattle Municipal Archives; Seattle Room of the Seattle Public Library; University of Washington, Allen Library (Microform and Newspaper Collections), Pacific Northwest Collection}

^{November 2009}