Maple Valley’s scattered development pattern didn’t lend itself to the building of a church near the town square. For the greater Maple Valley area’s growth wasn’t centrally located. The earliest settlers, the Maxwells, Russells, Sidebothoms, and Ames filed homestead claims for 160 acres before the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad reached the Fourth Crossing of the Cedar River. That’s where the first settlement was established in what’s now called old Maple Valley. The proposed town of Maple Valley was platted and registered by C.O. Russell in 1887, but never incorporated. Maple Valley resembled Gertrude Stein’s famous dictum, “There’s no there, there.”
The Highline Church located next to the Hobart Cemetery was the only known place of worship to be constructed during the first few decades of settlement. It burned down in 1953. It was likely interdenominational though some religious services were held by visiting ministers in the Crosson School, near Shadow Lake, the Hobart School, and later in Gibbon Hall (1911), now the Cedar Grange Hall perched on the edge of the Cedar River at the SR 169 bridge. Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) settlers held Sabbath School lessons in family homes once every three or four months when a Renton SDA minister would come on a Friday night and stay through Sunday.
By 1970 a Tahoma School District census showed a population of nearly 10,000. Still, just a few churches served the local area – the Tahoma Assembly of God, now Generational Hope (1960), Hobart Community (1961), and the Nazarene Church (1946) across from the railway depot and now the home of Valor Soccer. However by the late 1970s and early 1980s, churches were sprouting like mushrooms – Shepherd of the Valley (1978), Church of the Nazarene (1980), Hope Fellowship (1981), Latter Day Saints on Wax Road (1981), and St. George Episcopal (1982). The largest was yet to come.
Organizational meetings for the Maple Valley Presbyterian Church began at the home of Clint and Jeanie Lemmon in 1981. Roger and Reba Morris were founding members. Roger Morris was one of the working class “Boys in the Boat” of the famous University of Washington crew who won the Gold Medal in the men’s eight rowing event at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.
David Diehl moved to the area in Jan. 1983 to help plant the church and became its first pastor. Born in Pittsburg and educated at Grove City College, Diehl became involved in Young Life during the Jesus movement of the late 1960s. Five acres of land were purchased at the intersection of Sweeney Road and Petrovitsky in 1985. The erection of a 9,400-square-foot church followed two years later.
Construction was aided by the Sower Ministry (Servants On Wheels Every Ready), a non-profit, non-denominational group of Christian couples who travel from job to job in recreational vehicles. While helping to build the Presbyterian Church the Sowers stayed at the nearby Lake Sawyer Resort. The original building that seats 267 was completed in Feb. 1988. Additional expansions were added and by Oct. 1998, the church’s new 14,600 square-foot sanctuary that seats 550 was completed, making it the Maple Valley area’s largest.
Though still affiliated with Presbyterians, the congregation rebranded its name to Maple Valley Church in 2022. Services are held Sundays at 10 a.m. Pastor Diehl retired in 2018 and still lives locally but snowbirds in Wenatchee where he and his wife, Nancy enjoy skiing at Mission Ridge.
This 1988 photo of the original structure looking east from the parking lot comes courtesy of the Puget Sound Regional Archives which holds the historic records of the King County Assessor. Photo enhances were provided by Doug “Boomer” Burnham, a Tahoma photo instructor doing business as http://www.boomersphotography.com/
