Saint Edward Seminary & Park History

Saint Edward Seminary was a Catholic seminary on the shore of Lake Washington in Kenmore, built in 1931 and closed in 1976. The state of Washington bought the land and buildings in 1977, and Saint Edward State Park was dedicated on April 16, 1978. Since 2021 the restored seminary building has been a private hotel, The Lodge at Saint Edward, inside the park.

Before the Seminary

The lake came first. Washington State Parks' history says tongues of Ice Age glaciers dug the nearly 20-mile basin of Lake Washington, the second largest natural lake in the state after Lake Chelan.

The park's shore lies within the traditional territories of Coast Salish people, whose present-day descendants include members of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. Under the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855, signed under duress, local tribes ceded the land to the federal government but kept the right to harvest in their usual and accustomed places, including Lake Washington.

In 1872 the land passed into private hands as an investment in timber. It was later owned by Seattle publisher Miller Freeman, who promoted development east of the lake. The agency's history also records his leadership of the Anti-Japanese League in the 1920s.

The Lake Drops Nine Feet

In August 1916 Lake Washington was lowered by nearly nine feet when a barrier at the east end of the new ship canal was removed, and the canal was dedicated on July 4, 1917. The lake's outlet moved from the Black River to the canal. Salmon runs that used the Black River ended, and wetlands along the old shoreline dried up.

Bishop O'Dea's Seminary

Edward O'Dea became the first bishop of the Diocese of Seattle in 1907. In the late 1920s he bought the land with money from his own inheritance and gave it to the church for a seminary to train priests for the Pacific Northwest. The park brochure says he raised $100,000 during the Depression and the diocese borrowed another $200,000.

Seattle architect John Graham designed the four-story building, finished in 1931 in the Late Romanesque Revival style. It is cast-in-place concrete faced with tapestry brick in buff and brown tones, about 80,900 square feet in all. A time capsule went into the cornerstone at the dedication.

Saint Edward became the first fully accredited seminary in the United States. Over 45 years, staff and students built quiet places for prayer around the grounds and linked them with forest trails. The best known is the Grotto, built around 1945 of poured concrete faced with river cobblestones. The Seminary Trail still follows an old logging road from the building down to the lake, where cut timber was once rafted off to the mills.

From Seminary to State Park

Enrollment fell, and the seminary closed in 1976. Archbishop Hunthausen, who had studied there, wanted the woods kept open to the public. In 1977 the state bought the property for $7 million, paid for by Referendum 28, a 1972 parks bond that voters approved, and the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. Governor Dixy Lee Ray dedicated the park on April 16, 1978.

The brochure notes that some of the later seminary buildings were acquired by Bastyr College in 2005.

The Lodge at Saint Edward

In 2014 the State Parks commission weighed options for the aging seminary building, from repair to demolition, and chose a private partner. A 2016 state law let the commission lease the buildings for up to 62 years. The commission leased them to Daniels Real Estate, and The Lodge at Saint Edward opened as a hotel on May 7, 2021. Just before it opened, the 1931 time capsule was opened and refilled.

The Lodge is a private business. This guide is not affiliated with it or with Washington State Parks.

Seeing the History Today

• The seminary building stands at the center of the park, next to the main parking areas.
• The Grotto is a short walk downhill through the woods. See the Grotto.
• The Seminary Trail runs from the building to the lake. See hiking.