By: Janet Way, Ruth Williams, and Annie Fanning

Efforts to landmark the Seattle Naval Hospital Chapel and Forest at Fircrest School have been successful thanks to Shoreline Preservation Society (S.P.S.), with support from many local area groups including Thornton Creek Alliance. But the fight to save as much of the greater Fircrest forest as possible from development is not over.

Handcrafted by Northwest artisans, the beautiful chapel and its surrounding 2.6 acres of native forest were landmarked by the King County Landmark Preservation Board in 2021 after considerable effort by S.P.S. The group is still working to get the chapel and its woods recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Although the woods surrounding the chapel are for the moment protected, the larger forest on the Fircrest School campus is still at risk. Washington State’s Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) has shared its plans to develop the site with a new Fircrest School Master Plan, currently under State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) review. This Master Plan outlines different options for constructing new nursing and behavioral health facilities and developing portions of the site for private uses. 

Today’s 92-acre Fircrest School campus is immediately south of Hamlin Park and northwest of South Woods Park—both densely forested with tall trees. 

Contiguous to the Naval Hospital Chapel’s woods, the forested area at the northwest portion of the Fircrest site, is a huge asset for the neighborhood as both open space and for climate change mediation. At least 68 species of birds have been documented by eBird in the adjacent Hamlin Park, including pileated woodpeckers that require tall trees. Valuable not only for its beauty, habitat and environmental importance, the forest in question also has historical significance. Some of the hundreds of native trees, now at least 70–80 years old, were planted by the recovering sailors and staff as a therapeutic activity in the aftermath of World War II.

Thornton Creek Alliance, through our Land Use Committee, has gone on record to support the Fircrest School Master Plan option that will save the most trees. We also recommended daylighting the large stretch of Hamlin Creek, a tributary of Thornton Creek now mostly piped, and restoring riparian areas to provide a required buffer zone. Keeping this area around the creek drainages natural would create a wildlife corridor between Hamlin Park and South Woods Park. 

It is our hope that as much forest as possible can be saved while still serving the needs of the Fircrest School community. We await the SEPA determination of the Master Plan and the final decision by the City of Shoreline Hearing Examiner. Our hope is that our recommendations will be heard and that the daylighting of Hamlin Creek will become part of the plan and that development plans can be adjusted to save as many trees as possible.

RESOURCES

Shoreline Preservation Society
A local, all-volunteer, grassroots nonprofit fostering the preservation of historical heritage, cultural and environmental assets throughout Shoreline.

Save Shoreline’s Trees
A community coalition dedicated to the preservation of tall conifer and native tree canopy.

Fircrest School Land Use Assessment​
Contains the Master Plan for the Fircrest School campus.

Hamlin Park on eBird
The list of 68 bird species observed in the park adjacent to Fircrest School.