[2] The first Shaker Indian church, also called the "mother church", was built c. 1885 near Olympia, then the capital of Washington Territory.

The structure was built on a shoulder of the Black Hills above Mud Bay,[3] at the southern end of Eld Inlet, an arm of Puget Sound.

[4][5][6][7] It was near the homes of Louis "Mud Bay Louie" Yowaluch (aka Mud Bay Louis) and his brother Sam "Mud Bay Sam" Yowaluch, co-founders of the church,[8] first and second "headman"s respectively.

[4] The original church was oriented in an east-west direction, in a manner that would set the pattern for subsequent church architecture.

[9] The earliest several churches were about 18-by-24-foot (5.5 m × 7.3 m) plain wooden buildings with 10-foot (3.0 m) shingle roofs, stout wooden doors and floors.