About Us

The founding of University Presbyterian Church was set into motion in 1896 when the University of Washington (UW) decided to move from its downtown Seattle location to a plot of land covered with timber and underbrush northeast of Lake Union.

In the decade that followed UW’s move, land was cleared and houses began to scatter the area.

Then, in 1906, UW announced that the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909 would be held at the campus. This generated a surge of new interest and growth in the district. The area boomed, and with it came a need for a church to serve the growing community. 

Several local residents came together, deciding to move into what was now called the “U- District” and start UPC. The hope was for UPC to serve as a place of faith and worship for University students, faculty and staff, and neighbors around the campus. 

And so in 1908, UPC was founded.

This congregation initially met in Sherrick Hall on the University campus. Then in 1912, UPC dedicated it’s new sanctuary, a wooden building built on 47th Street just a block north of UW.

The church grew rapidly in its first years. And after WWI, the congregation swelled to 4,000 members. 

Today UPC’s mission remains the same: to be a center for Christian faith development, inviting people in and sending them out into the world to spread the good news. God has strategically placed UPC in the heart of a neighborhood that has and will continue to be a vibrant area for medicine, high-tech, bio-tech, and entrepreneurship.