By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Last week, Mount Zion Baptist Church’s Housing Development (MZHD) celebrated the grand opening of The Central District Freehold Affordable Housing Development, created to provide affordable housing to the traditional communities in the Central Area while preserving Afro-centric culture.
Located just north of Mt. Zion Baptist Church off of 19th and Madison, the complex is partially powered by solar panels on the top of the structure and features state-of-the-art amenities, including a business center, a community rooftop with panoramic views of Seattle, and parking.
The building, the vision of MZHD President Wallace Johnson, has sixty-one units and has the viewpoint roof deck named in honor of Johnson.
“The facility has sixty-one units for seniors and veterans,” says Johnson. “We are pretty excited about this. This changes the whole face of the corner; this area, and we are very happy to be a part of it.”
Those in attendance for the event included Rev. Dr. Paris Smith, Pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Sam Cameron, Project Architect and Vice President of the Mt. Zion Housing Development, Wallace Johnson, President of the Mt Zion Housing Development, Rev. Cecilia Johnson, Dwight Randolph, as well as a host of city officials and supporters.
With prayers and presentations honoring all of the collaborators involved, on a grey and chilly afternoon, guests weathered the cold to celebrate the vision and work of the Mt. Zion community and the community at large.
“I think the Central District Freehold affordable housing opportunity is a great example of what this city is looking forward to,” says Rev. Dr. Smith. “With community involvement as well as church involvement, it allows us to see the future.”
Throughout the building are rooms that were dedicated to some of Seattle’s prominent leaders throughout the history of the Central District. For example, the business center was named after one of Seattle’s first Black multi-media pioneers, Chris H. Bennett, the founder of the Tiloben Publishing Company, which owns and operates The Seattle Medium, Tacoma True Citizen, Portland Medium, and Metro Homemaker newspapers, and the owner of 1620 AM KYIZ, 1420 KRIZ, 1480 KBMS (Portland), and 97.5 KBMS FM (Portland) radio stations.
“I think it is such an honor when your community honors you,” says Bennett. “I feel privileged to be honored in this way as it was a total surprise to me.
“Although I worked extremely hard to help Mt. Zion retain McKinney Manor, I am honored on behalf of the community, and I repeat that “on behalf of the community” because without the community, we are nobody; we cannot do anything,” continued Bennett. “I tilt my hat and salute the people who had the courage to recognize me in this honor, and I thank them very much.”
Another room, located to the left of the main entrance, is a community room dedicated to the late Samuel J. Smith — the first African American member of the Seattle City Council who spearheaded the successful adoption of a municipal Open Housing Law in 1968. The rooftop garden is dedicated to John and Mary Kelsie, who were the caretakers of Mt. Zion Baptist Church for many years.
According to Mt. Zion officials, “From after-service dinners and church grounds maintenance, John and Mary Kelsie were no strangers to working the soil and gardening…”
The artwork that adorns the building was produced by renowned artist Troy Miles and depicts some of America’s greatest historical Black pioneers and leaders.
“This was a very exciting project,” says Miles. “I obviously was excited to be involved with something that was depicting or was going to highlight our great heroes and “sheroes” from our great history. To be able to do public art is always a fantastic thing. Art is powerful and transcends and speaks in ways that words can’t, and so when you get the opportunity to have things showcased indefinitely, it’s an honor and something I do not take lightly.”
Sam Cameron, Vice President of MZHD and the Lead architect and designer of the project, says that the project was designed to combat the displacement of African American seniors and people of color from their historical neighborhoods.
“The project was meant to combat gentrification in the area,” says Cameron. “There were a lot of seniors that were being displaced, specifically African Americans and people of color that were being displaced from their historical neighborhoods, so we wanted to provide housing that is affordable that they can come back to and live closer to their churches of worship and hospitals and things that had some cultural significance to them.”
“Deacon Wallace (Wallace Johnson) had the vision of doing this project for seniors and veterans in this area, and so we put together the design and the funding package to get this project done,” added Cameron.
The City of Seattle, Office of Housing funded $11.5 million for Mt. Zion’s new housing development. Other investors in the project include King County, Washington State Housing Trust Fund, Washington Community Reinvestment Association, Banner Bank, and additional funding sources through grants and sponsor loans.