page_title: Francis X. Prefontaine
section_title: Seattle
hierarchical_section_title: Francis X. Prefontaine / Seattle
caption_attribution_description: English: Father Francis Xavier Prefontaine and the Our Lady of Good Help Church in Seattle, Washington. The church was built by Father Prefontaine beginning in 1869, and became the first Catholic Church in Seattle. By 1882, the church had become too small to accommodate the nearly 300 parishioners. Fr. Prefontaine remodeled the church, which continued to serve as a central base for the priests traveling to missions in the Puget Sound area. In 1905 the church was demolished and rebuilt on a new site. Fr. Prefontaine died in 1909.
context_page_description: Monsignor Francis Xavier Prefontaine was a French Canadian priest and missionary, an early resident in the pioneer days of Seattle, Washington, and a figure in the history of Seattle and the Puget Sound region of Washington State. He was Seattle's first resident Roman Catholic priest and built Seattle's first Catholic church.
context_section_description: Fr. Prefontaine first landed in Seattle at what is now Pioneer Square and decided to set up a ministry there. At that time Seattle was a lumber-mill town and had only about 600 residents. Prefontaine counted only ten Catholics in the town and only three attended the first mass that he conducted. Bishop Blanchet warned Prefontaine that Seattle had little potential as a Catholic mission, but nevertheless, the bishop gave Prefontaine permission to establish a permanent parish there.
  Prefontaine rented a small two-room house at Third Avenue and Yesler Way in Seattle for $6 per month to be used as a church as well as his living quarters. He converted one room to a small chapel so that he could conduct services there while working to raise funds to build a church. He held his first Mass there on November 24, 1867.
caption: Father Francis X. Prefontaine and the Our Lady of Good Help Church, which he built in 1869
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