Since the founding of Seattle Prep, its campus has never stayed the same for too long. With the recent addition of the Merlino center three years ago, and the construction of the Adelphia Memorial Hall in 2014, 11th Avenue East looks a lot different than it did over one hundred years ago.  

All the way back in 1900, the home of Seattle Prep was not the modern-day campus seen today. Before the land was purchased in 1905 by Swedish Baptist Missionaries, it used to serve as a cemetery to the Catholic community of Seattle. 

The Catholic church had purchased land in the North Capitol Hill neighborhood in 1884 to create the Holy Cross Cemetery, the first Catholic cemetery in Seattle. The cemetery remained open until 1905 when the City of Seattle deemed the land to be improper for burial due to it being too soggy. The 100 people buried there were moved to the Calvary Cemetery in the Ravenna neighborhood.  

After Holy Cross was closed, the Swedish Baptist Missionaries in Seattle purchased the land with the intent to start a school there. There, the missionaries built Adelphia Hall, the first building on the Seattle Prep campus. Construction on the building was finished in 1909 and remained there until it was replaced by Adelphia Memorial Hall in 2014.  

The land would not be donated to Prep until 1919, when a wealthy Catholic businessman named Thomas C. McHugh purchased the land from the Swedish Baptists and donated it to Seattle Prep (which was then known as Seattle College). From then on, 11th Avenue east became the permanent home of Seattle Prep.  

Hundreds of thousands of people have come and gone from this land. The Seattle Prep campus has gone through many makeovers over the years and has meant different things to different people. It has been a home for loved ones who have passed on, a home to Baptist missionaries, a home to the students of Seattle Prep. Although the campus looks much different than when Prep first moved in, the essence has remained the same. Seattle Prep has always been and will continue to be a home, dedicated to inspiring the next generation of men and women for others.