On December 3, 2003 some 50 people gathered on a bright sunny, grassy hilltop in SeaTac to watch six people with gold bladed shovels break ground for the new mausoleum addition at Washington Memorial Park.  The six people were Cameron Smock, Vice President and General Manager of Washington Memorial Park; David Hepburn, Western Regional Manager of McCleskey Mausoleums; Bob Anderson, President of Washington Memorial Park; Don DeHan, SeaTac Deputy Mayor; Judy Raab, Chairman of the Board of Washington Memorial Park; and George Lanegraf, President of Southwest King County Chamber of Commerce.  The new addition will consist of more than fourteen hundred in-door casket spaces in a state-of-the-art facility.

Approximately 5,000 cubic yards of earth will be relocated on the cemetery property to make room for the new structure which will be made of "poured-in-place" reinforced concrete.  All indoor crypts (casket spaces) will be covered with marble.  The exterior walls will be finished with granite and a design depicting mountains.

Washington Memorial Park is a family-owned company that was founded in 1930 by the Washington Cemetery Association.  The Association President, Hector MacRae, and the other officers of the association were intent on creating a "park-like setting together with monuments of inspiration."  The MacRae family owned and operated the cemetery until 1977 when it was purchased by the families that own Bonney-Watson Funeral Homes.  Originated in 1868, Bonney-Watson is the second oldest business in Seattle (next to the Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper).

On June 10, 1931, the first interment was made for Eric Alfred Erickson.  Beginning with very little capital and only eleven acres of land, the cemetery grew during the greatest depression in history.  Excerpts from the 1939 president's report indicate that the cemetery had nearly 1,000 interments by the end of that year.

The ground breaking on December 3rd for the Chapel of Memories represents the second addition to the Eternal Light Mausoleum.  In addition to over fourteen hundred in-door casket spaces the first phase of the Chapel of Memories mausoleum will include in-door cremation niches.  Stain glass artwork and other state-of-the-art features will make the Chapel of Memories mausoleum the nicest of its kind in the area.

It is expected that the construction of the mausoleum will take approximately 11 months to complete.  The cemetery has been pre-selling crypts in the Chapel of Memories mausoleum for over two years, and dozens of crypts have already been sold.  McCleskey Mausoleum Company of Atlanta, Georgia, is in charge of the construction.