Our Lady Of Good Hope, Seattle’s First Catholic Church and the Parish of the Newly Arrived McGinnis Family

1867 Rev. Francis X. Prefontaine founded Our Lady of Good Help, the first Catholic Church in Seattle

Our Lady of Good Help was used by Bishop O'Dea as a pro-cathedral in 1903. As Seattle's downtown became more crowded, in 1905 the church was demolished and rebuilt on a new site. In 1912 it was closed as a parish church because of its close proximity to the new St. James Cathedral, and was instead included as part of the Cathedral parish. Although the original building is gone, Our Lady of Good Help is still remembered as the first Catholic Church in Seattle.

The funeral service for our great-grandmother Margaret McGinnis on Tuesday December 29, 1903, some five days following her death, was at Seattle’s first Catholic Church, Our Lady of Good Help, at 4^th and Washington Street, on the eastern fringes of the current Pioneer Square district. At the time of her death the church served the faithful towards the Southern end of downtown Seattle. Prefontaine Place, a street in downtown Seattle was obviously named after the priest that built the church. The street cuts a diagonal swath through a block at the south end of Third Ave that probably lies directly across the very property of the original church.

The first known address for any of the McGinnis clan in Seattle was in the 1894-1895 Seattle Directory and the home of Patrick Fitzpatrick and his wife Sarah McGinnis at  918 Weller Street. The address is located on the west fringe of what is now known as Seattle’s International District more commonly known as China Town.   This was about a half mile thru the winding streets of Seattle from the families Parish Church.  Living with them was Sarah’s mother Margaret McGinnis, our great grandmother.  This essentially was at the southwest base of what is now known as First Hill.  Seattle’s Harborview or King county Hospital lies at the top of the hill by perhaps a quarter of a mile directly to the north of the McGinnis family original location.

Margaret’s death certificate some nine years after her first known address records her address as 718 Weller Street.  The similarities of these two locations, but two blocks apart, may simply be an error, most likely on the death certificate.