Remington Ballroom

Stories of St. Edward

The first-floor meeting rooms were once home to seminary classrooms. Now reimagined as meeting and event spaces, we've named each gathering space for a figure who played a significant role in the rich history of the property, adding a unique story to each room. Our signature event space, Remington Ballroom, is named for the first recorded, non-indigenous landowner of the land we now call home.

Philo Remington was the owner of Remington Guns, who made his fortune selling guns to the US Union Army for the Civil War. He used that money to buy investment property in the Territory of Washington in 1876. He later sold a parcel of that land to his son-in-law Watson C. Squire, who then leased it to John McMasters, and the town of Kenmore, Washington was born.

In the building's seminary days, this space was a designated recreation room. It was used as the seminary prayer hall, where students said morning and evening prayers, and attended classes. It once had a stage used at the north end, which student accounts recall using for gatherings and presentations. 

Photograph courtesy the Archives of the Archdiocese of Seattle.