Evergreen Washelli

One of the reasons I love cemeteries is the unexpected things you can find there. Several weeks ago I had about 20 minutes before picking up a friend and decided I'd wander into the Evergreen Washelli cemetery in Seattle. I was drawn to a giant stone pyramid on the northern perimeter of the cemetery and stopped to investigate further. I'd seen it before but never had time to poke around and see what was there. The pyramid itself is in fact a Russian Veterans Church Monument dedicated to Saint Nicholas. Most of the graves there had Russian names and many had ornate headstones. It was there that found the angel with the haunted eyes who adorns the beginning of this blog. After wandering around the pyramid and snapping some pictures of interesting headstones, I reached the western side and discovered a door on the pyramid. And it was was propped slightly open. I couldn't resist- I opened it or and peered inside.

What I found there broke my heart. It was clearly once a holy place used for services. It was obviously disused, abused and neglected. The air was pungent with mold. The paintings gazed down upon you from high up on the wall- angels, Mary, Jesus, all sorrowful and melancholy. Some had mildew spots. At some point someone had started a fire and there were scorch marks on the pulpit and side tables, their fabric coverings beginning to disintegrate. Yet despite all these things, the gilded icons still glowed in the sunlight that touched them. I felt like I was in a place outside of normal reality. And I felt a strong desire to call attention to this place, to bring back it's sacred reverence, something I may still do.

As I closed the door, I gave a silent prayer of thanks for allowing me to take photographs, as well as a prayer that someone would find a way to clean things up. My 20 minutes was up and I needed to be on my way. I will most likely be visiting that place again and I'm curious to see what it looks like now.