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 Reverend Mark A. Matthews - Denny Park - Seattle, WA
N 47° 37.120 W 122° 20.465
10T E 549513 N 5274128
This statue of Rev. Mark Matthews lies in Denny Park, home of the first and oldest city park in Seattle, WA.
Waymark Code: WMG26Q
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 01/03/2013
Views: 8
Visitors to Denny Park might come across a bronze statue bust of Reverend Mark A. Matthews, a former prominent and very influential man of the City of Seattle during the early 1900s. The words inscribed on the statue base say the following:
TO
THE MEMORY
OF
REV.
MARK A MATTHEWS
D.D,LL.D
PREACHER OF THE
WORD OF GOD
AND FRIEND
OF MAN
ERECTED BY
HIS FELLOW
CITIZENS
1942
There is a wonderful online article from the HistoryLink.org website and a few excerpts are taken from this article regarding Rev. Matthews:
 If one person in the history of Seattle reflects the significant way in which religion infused itself into the social and political life of the city, it would be the Reverend Mark Matthews. Matthews pastored Seattle’s First Presbyterian Church for 38 years, from 1902 to 1940. He built his congregation into the denomination’s largest, with nearly 10,000 members at its height -- a remarkable accomplishment in the Pacific Northwest, which was then (and is today) the least-churched region of the country. He spearheaded social projects and helped create new institutions such as Seattle Day Nursery, which evolved into Childhaven, one of the state’s most successful institutions to treat child abuse. He helped lead the effort to establish Harborview Hospital. But for the first four decades of the twentieth century the Presbyterian minister also played controversial roles. He was a bitter foe of mayor Hiram Gill (1866-1919) and Seattle Times editor Alden Blethen (1845-1915). He was the unlikely friend of labor leader Dave Beck (1894-1993) and a frequent correspondent with U.S. President Woodrow Wilson during Wilson's presidency. Throughout Matthews' career he took controversial positions including support for Prohibition and opposition to woman suffrage. Filled with paradox and irony, his colorful career reflects many of the most important social, political, and religious forces at work in the history of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
... Mark Matthews believed he was called by God to come to Seattle and help transform it from a budding seaport shaped by the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897 into a community influenced by Victorian values and led by the middle class. In trying to do, so he attracted both critics and supporters, but his influence was unquestioned. His legacy is complicated. On the one hand, he generated considerable controversy for some of his opinions and some of his actions. Many Seattle residents believed that he reflected a view of the world that hindered Seattle’s economic development and stunted its trajectory toward becoming more cosmopolitan. Matthews made enemies in the political as well as the religious world.
But without question, Mark Matthews was the most influential Protestant clergyman in the Pacific Northwest in the first half of the twentieth century. He came at the turn of the century with a conviction that Victorian values could and should displace social values that accompanied the young male culture of the mining camp and the seaport. Seattle’s middle class, while not always in agreement with Matthews, drew on his vision of the way in which the city should address issues of health care, education, and overall political values.
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The sculptor of Rev. Matthews' bust was renowned artist Alonzo Victor Lewis, who sculpted some very well-known sculptures in the Pacific Northwest. The following link from the University of Washington digital archives website has a nice photograph of him.
Associated Religion(s): Presbytarian
Statue Location: Denny Park
Entrance Fee: None
Artist: Alonzo Victor Lewis
Website: [Web Link]
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Visit Instructions:
Take a picture of the statue. A waymarker and/or GPSr is not required to be in the image but it doesn't hurt.
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