WAYFARERS CHAPEL

Wayfarers Chapel

Wayfarers Chapel

Introduction

Wayfarers Chapel, also renowned as "The Glass place of worship" is located in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. It is documented for its unique up to date architecture and location on cliffs overhead Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Swedenborgian place of worship of North America and serves as a memorial to its founder, Emanuel Swedenborg.

The place of worship was conceived by Lloyd Wright (son of Frank Lloyd Wright) in the late 1940s and was built between 1949 and 1951. Additions were constructed in subsequent years, encompassing a tower and a tourist center. As with many of Wright's structures, the chapel characteristics geometric concepts and incorporates the natural countryside into the design. The Wayfarers Chapel is recorded in the nationwide list of Historic Places.

Because of its scenic location, the place of worship is very popular for weddings, both in the chapel itself and furthermore outside on the chapel grounds. The place of worship was featured in the Fox teen drama television sequence The O.C., as the location of weddings and funerals. It was furthermore boasted briefly on the American research fiction television sequence Sliders.

History

Wayfarers Chapel, a most odd place of worship made nearly solely of glass, is sponsored by the Swedenborgian place of worship and serves as a nationwide memorial to Emanuel Swedenborg. Wayfarers Chapel began as a illusion in the brain of Elizabeth Schellenberg, a constituent of the Swedenborgian place of worship who lived on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in the late 1920s. The Peninsula was mostly open farmland. Atwo-lane gravel street skirting the shoreline from San Pedro to Palos Verdes Estates.

Mrs. Schellenberg dreamed of a little chapel on a hillside above the Pacific sea where wayfarers could stop to rest, meditate and give thanks to God for the wonder and beauty of creation. Narcissa Cox Vanderlip, furthermore a constituent of the Swedenborgian Church, answered to the illusion and acquiesced to contribute land for the chapel site. She asked for young architect Ralph Jester to draw up plans for the chapel. The despondency of the 1930s and World War II forced a hold up in evolving the plans. Following the war Mr. Jester advised his ally Lloyd Wright, child of the famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, to request his genius to the task.

Lloyd Wright discovered himself in complete accord with the positive outlook of the Swedenborgian Church and its focus on harmony between God's natural world and the inner world of mind and spirit. The 3.5 acre site and the foundation were dedicated on July 16, 1949 by the Rev. Dr. Leonard I. Tafel of Philadelphia, then leader of the nationwide Swedenborgian denomination. When the Chapel was constructed in 1951 it stood alone like a prized jewel on a deserted dusty knoll overlooking the azure Pacific. It was shortly to be renowned as “the glass church” after its most famous architectural feature.

The accomplished Chapel was dedicated as a memorial to Emanual Swedenborg, theologian and researcher from the 1700's. His religious illumination of the Bible is the ...