An inclusive funeral home

Seattle is diverse and our neighbors come from all walks of life. At Evergreen Washelli, we are happy to conduct your funeral or memorial service according to you and your loved one’s customs and traditions, no matter your religion, background or culture. As a non-denominational facility, we proudly serve families of all faiths, and have for generations.

Facilities to meet your every need

Whether you are planning a viewing for close family and friends, or need a large gathering space, our funeral home has facilities to meet your needs. We offer several visitation areas to choose from for more intimate services. Our Celebration Hall is a large multi-purpose space for celebration of life and memorial events, seating about 100 and is commonly used for catered receptions. And the Tribute Center, seating 150, offers state of the art technology, a large video screen, music and computer capabilities including internet access and web broadcasting.

Celebrations of Life

We believe in honoring your loved one through a celebration that is personal and provides a healing experience to family and friends. Celebrations of life, led by our certified celebrants, can be held with burial or cremation and honor a life well lived. From traditional ceremonies to unique celebrations, we pride ourselves on helping you plan the perfect event.

Evergreen Washelli has been known for our customization and unique event options that most locations just don’t offer. Whether the funeral procession is led by an antique 1930s John Deere tractor, or the celebrant and guests are clad in hunting and fishing gear, we can custom tailor your celebration of life to honor the unique passions, hobbies and interests that inspired your loved one.

Cremation services in Seattle

We specialize in cremation services that honor loved ones in personalized ways, and families love our transparent pricing. With expertise in scattering ashes and a friendly team who pays attention to every detail, we provide service that is second to none. And now we offer both traditional flame cremation and water cremation.

More and more people are choosing cremation over traditional burial, but most aren’t familiar with the many options:

• a cremation without a funeral or memorial service of any kind.
• a funeral with your loved one present, followed by cremation.
• a cremation followed by a scattering, cemetery memorialization or celebration of life—or all three.

For those who wish for a more momentous memorial, Neptune Memorial Reef^® is an underwater cremation garden off the coast of Florida. A Celestis Memorial Spaceflight takes ashes into space for a little while or forever.

There are many cremation providers—and they're not all equal. Here's what you can expect when you choose us for your loved one's cremation:

• Custody of care guaranteed. Our custody-of-care program helps safeguard the identification of your loved one from the time we bring them into our care until the time we return them to your family. We check, cross-check and check again, every step of the way.
• Exclusive custody of your loved one. We use only crematories owned and operated by Dignity Memorial^® providers or trusted partners. Once your loved one is in our custody or that of a trusted partner, they’re in our care until they’re returned to your family.
• Licensed, certified, conscientious staff. All Dignity Memorial crematory operators are licensed and certified by Cremation Association of North America, or CANA. Only one person at a time is cremated, and the cremation chamber is thoroughly cleaned before the next person is cremated.

Now offering human composting

Human composting is an alternative to burial and cremation. Inside a vessel created especially for this purpose, organic elements, such as wood chips, mulch and wildflowers, gently transform a body into nutrient-rich soil. Your family may choose to use this soil to plant trees or flowers, or you can place it in a location meaningful to you. The remaining soil is sent to conservation land on the Olympic Peninsula to aid projects such as reforestation, improving soil health and restoring challenged ecosystems.

Proudly Serving those who have served

People who have served in the armed forces deserve special consideration. To pay tribute to our fallen heroes, Evergreen Washelli assists in coordinating veterans burial benefits to those eligible. At Evergreen Washelli Cemetery, we can handle the details for you and provide all options so you can make an informed decision.

Available veteran benefits include: inscribed cemetery marker, U.S. flag, military honors, and payment assistance. You may be eligible as a military member on active duty, military retirees, members and former members of the selected reserve, U.S. veterans of any war, U.S. veterans who served at least one term of enlistment and honorably discharged.

Create the perfect cemetery memorial

A place for healing and reflection allows family and friends to find comfort long after services are over, and establishes your family legacy. There are a wide variety of options for burial and cremation memorialization, and we honor your burial traditions, no matter your religion, background or culture.

To further personalize a place of reflection, Evergreen Washelli Cemetery offers a variety of burial, entombment and cremation memorialization options which include:

Family Estates - Design the perfect private garden estate to accommodate as many people as desired. This can be burial space, cremation space, a private mausoleum, or a combination of any of these forms of memorialization.

Snoqualmie Estates - With its running creek and bubbling fountain, these estates provide beautifully secluded and peaceful resting places that harbor quiet reflection and remembrance for generations to come.

San Juan Mausoleum - Provides a beautiful and affordable option for above-ground placement. This granite mausoleum contains spaces that can hold either single or companion placements.

San Juan Mausoleum Niches - A peaceful location surrounded by nature, this option is available for those preferring outdoor, above-ground placement of cremated remains. This granite columbarium contains niches that can hold either single or companion placements.

Washelli Columbarium - A serene setting with its many water features, this option offers bronze or glass-front niches. The glass front niches allow for personalized memorialization for individuals or multiple family members. Sheltered and handicap-accessible, the Washelli Columbarium provides year round comfort and convenience.

Tree-Ring Cremation Gardens - A contemporary concept in cremation memorialization, Tree-Ring Gardens is a small, elegantly landscaped garden providing for economical individual placement of cremated remains.

Cremation Gardens - We offer several traditional cremation ground-burial options including Memory Glen. Our Memory Glen Wall allows for above-ground placement. Both are located in a garden surrounded in the beauty of nature.

Lawn Crypts - The Evergreen Lawn Crypt section provides a modern and affordable burial option. Modern engineering is used to create a well-drained section of pre-placed concrete burial liners, both single and double-depth. This is a beautiful yet economical burial option for individuals and couples.

Ground Burial—Evergreen Washelli has a wide variety of ground-burial areas throughout the cemetery.

Veteran’s Cemetery

The first Memorial Day Service at the Evergreen Washelli Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery was held on May 30, 1927. At noon, a moment of silence was followed by a twenty-one-gun salute by the Battery I, 146th Field Artillery. The first headstone was placed during this service. Marine Private Thomas McElderry died on October 13, 1926. His mother, upon learning of the new cemetery for veterans, requested that he be placed where he would be honored for his military service. His body was moved to the new Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery.

Shortly after the cemetery was established, the American Legion donated a flagpole which has proudly flown our nation’s colors since. Chimes Tower, donated in the 1950s, rings the hours with its carillon. It stands as a memorial to veterans buried elsewhere, but remembered by friends and relatives.

Guarding the walkway to the Chimes Tower are two carronades from the U.S.S. Constitution which became famous after an 1812 battle against the Guerriere, a fast British frigate. The British ship fired furiously, but her shots glanced from the hull of the Constitution, whose cheering crew bestowed their sturdy frigate with the nickname “Old Ironsides.” The Constitution became a symbol of the United States’ rise to power. The presence of these guns and other symbols of military honor within the Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery serve to remind us that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.

History

Evergreen Washelli Cemetery was started in 1884 in an area known as Oak Lake by David Denny, one of the founders of Seattle. In 1887, his cousin moved his family’s plot to the new burial ground, and family and friends also began to bury their loved ones there. In 1903, Oaklake Cemetery, was inherited by David’s son, Victor who sold the property in 1914 to the American Necropolis Association, a St. Louis-based company that owned cemetery properties in several states. ANA named the cemetery “Washelli” (a Makah word meaning “west wind”).

In 1919, the Evergreen Cemetery Company started a competing cemetery on the western side of Aurora Avenue, directly opposite Washelli Cemetery. In 1922, Evergreen Cemetery purchased Washelli from ANA. The cemetery changed its name to Evergreen Washelli in 1962.

The Evergreen Washelli funeral home was started in 1972. It quickly outgrew its offices on the eastern side of Washelli and in 1994, moved into larger facilities on the Evergreen side of the property. To meet the need for a gathering and reception space, Evergreen Washelli expanded the funeral home facility in 2008 to include modern and inviting reception rooms.