St Joseph's Church

Head to 18th Avenue East in Capitol Hill's Stevens neighborhood to find St Joseph's Church, a Jesuit-run Catholic parish in a 1930 building that Seattle has named city landmark number 67.

Part ofStevens Seattle landmarks

Frequently asked questions

St Joseph's Church is at 732 18th Ave E in the Stevens neighborhood, part of Seattle's Capitol Hill district. It is about 0.3 mile from Volunteer Park.

The current church was built in 1930. The parish itself dates to 1907, and a larger granite-faced Gothic design was scaled back because of the Great Depression.

Yes. St. Joseph's is part of the Archdiocese of Seattle and is a ministry of the West Province of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits.

Yes. The parish has an active LGBTQ ministry focused on an inclusive, supportive community. It hosted the Seattle chapter of Dignity and a weekly LGBTQ mass in the 1980s and 1990s, which ended in 2001.

St. Patrick's Parish in Portage Bay merged into St. Joseph's in 2022. In 2024 St. Joseph's was partnered with St. Therese Parish in Madrona, and the two plan to merge by the end of the 2020s.

On a largely residential stretch of 18th Avenue East stands a church finished in 1930, a building shaped by the lean years of the Great Depression. St Joseph's Church sits at 732 18th Ave E in Stevens, part of Seattle's Capitol Hill district, and the city has named it landmark number 67. Jesuits run this Catholic parish, which is known for its long social justice focus and its welcome to LGBTQ Catholics.

The church belongs to St. Joseph's Parish within the Archdiocese of Seattle, and it is a ministry of the West Province of the Society of Jesus. Read a little of its story before you go and you will meet Irish American working families, the Great Depression, the changes of Vatican II and decades of debate over LGBTQ inclusion in the Catholic Church.

Rooted in Working Irish American Families

The parish began in 1907, when its first members were mostly working-class Irish Americans, many of them the children of immigrants. For its first two decades, St. Joseph's served a growing hillside neighborhood north of downtown, and its families filled the pews as the area took shape around them.

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By the 1920s, the congregation had outgrown its early setup and started planning a new church. That ambition was about to run straight into one of the hardest economic periods in American history.

A Gothic Dream, Scaled Back

Picture the church that was first drawn up: a Gothic design faced in granite. When the Great Depression hit, the parish trimmed the project, and the church you see today was completed in 1930 as a more modest version of that early vision.

That compromise is part of what makes the building worth knowing. It tells the story of a congregation that built what it could afford in a lean time, and the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board has since given it official protection.

Vatican II and the Missing Statues

In 1965, acting in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, the parish took its statues out of the church. The change went well beyond decoration. It marked the start of a turn toward a parish identity centered on social justice, a direction St. Joseph's has kept growing into over the decades since.

A Home for Seattle's LGBTQ Catholics

Under Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, Seattle's Catholic clergy gained a reputation for accepting lesbian and gay Catholics. Sitting in the heart of Seattle's gay neighborhood, St. Joseph's became a center of that support.

Dignity and the Weekly Mass

In 1983, Hunthausen hosted a conference of DignityUSA at nearby St. James Cathedral. Dignity is an organization that urges the Catholic Church to change its position on homosexuality. Through the 1980s and 1990s, St. Joseph's hosted Dignity's Seattle chapter and held a weekly mass for LGBTQ Catholics.

What Changed After 2001

That weekly mass ended in 2001 under pressure from the archdiocese, and Dignity no longer operates within the parish. St. Joseph's still runs an active LGBTQ ministry, which aims to offer an inclusive, supportive community to LGBTQ parishioners and neighbors alike.

A Parish Growing Through Mergers

St. Joseph's is in the middle of real change. In 2022, St. Patrick's Parish in Portage Bay merged into St. Joseph's, and in 2024 the archdiocese's Partners in the Gospel plan paired it with St. Therese Parish in Madrona.

The two parishes plan to fully merge before the end of the 2020s. If you are visiting or settling in nearby, expect schedules and ministries to keep evolving as that process unfolds.

Planning Your Visit to 18th Avenue East

This is an active parish, so the best way to experience the church is to attend a service. Check the parish's official website for mass times and current details before you go, which is especially worthwhile while the parish structure is changing.

Then spend some time in the surrounding Stevens neighborhood on Capitol Hill, a largely residential area where the church makes an easy stop on a walking tour of historic homes.

Gardens and Landmarks a Short Stroll Away

Several protected sites lie within about a third of a mile of the church, so it is simple to pair your visit with a stroll through north Capitol Hill: