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After this morning’s groundbreaking for the Hope Lutheran School/Church expansion/renovation project, we caught the video above, as an illustration of the church building boom in that block of 42nd alone – Hope Lutheran leaders and members in a procession past the West Seattle Christian Church (WSB sponsor) construction project, on their way to continue their service at the Seattle Lutheran High School Gym, where they’ll hold services all summer while site work is under way. More on what’s happening with these projects, and another one under way at Holy Rosary a bit farther north along the same street, ahead:

The Hope Lutheran project at 4456 42nd , the West Seattle Christian project at 4400 42nd SW, and the Holy Rosary project at 4152 42nd are now all on our clickable map of Junction/Triangle area development:

We covered the WSCC groundbreaking back in January; the multipurpose building it’s putting up is really taking shape after four months of work:

But this morning, all eyes were on Hope Lutheran to the south, where the congregation emerged mid-service, around 10 am, for ceremonial proceedings that began with remarks from Pastor Keith Eilers, here following up on the Bible passage he read about building on a solid foundation — this clip includes part of his message, followed by the first shovel-turning:

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They were just the first two to participate — this was a sequential, and of course, symbolic, groundbreaking — the work will begin on the north side of the school building, which is why the school year ended early (last Wednesday) — this weekend, staffers and volunteers finished moving everything out of the school. Here’s how Pastor Eilers described the project in an earlier e-mail exchange with WSB:

In a nutshell we are expanding the square footage of our school to the north by about a 1/3 of the square footage as we have now, with a new wing that will include pre-school, kindergarten and 8th grade classrooms, teachers lounge and restrooms. We are also physically connecting the church to the school with a connecting wing that triples the size of our foyer (narthex) with nursery and restrooms immediately accessible; a second floor with new music, computer, resource and conference rooms. An elevator will make all three floors of our facility hanidcap-accessible.

Some of the Hope Lutheran kids kicked off summer by helping this morning:

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Even the contractor and architect got a turn:

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And the pastor himself finally put on a hard hat and dug in:

Hope Lutheran leaders say the school should be ready to occupy again by early September; church services at the Seattle Lutheran gym will continue as long as the project requires.

Now, about that third church project on 42nd – we happened onto it while researching the other two for this report. Holy Rosary is proceeding with its Parish Center renovations project, described in this architect document as “convert former faculty residence (convent) to community center with school classrooms, renovated chapel, reception room, homeless shelter, and accessory storage.” The church’s website has an extensive section with floor plans and exterior drawings.

These three churches aren’t the only ones in West Seattle with expansion/renovation projects (and/or capital campaigns) under way, but they’re the only ones in close proximity to a “secular” building boom that’s running concurrently. (WSB coverage of local faith communities and events is archived here.)