BY DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN
dvaughan@heraldsun.com; 419-6563
ORANGE COUNTY -- To tell the history of St. Mary's Chapel in Orange County is to tell the history of the community who lived there, died there and whose descendants still call it home. On Sunday, the historic chapel celebrates 250 years since its founding, and the 150th anniversary of the brick chapel on a hill.
Regular worship services haven't been held in the Episcopal chapel since the Great Depression, but the community has made sure the structure is sound, an annual homecoming is held and its history preserved. The chapel is older than this nation, established in 1759 when our government was England's. A wooden chapel was built on a stone foundation at the intersection of present-day St. Mary's Road and Pleasant Green/Schley Road. The foundation stones remain, now encircled along with the chapel cemetery by a low stone wall. Names on the headstones dating back to 1780 include Lockhart, Walker, Dortch, Holden, Vickers, Bacon and Carrington. They include those who died in infancy and in old age, mothers and fathers, civilians and at least one Civil War veteran killed in battle.
Those buried Walkers and Lockharts are relatives of Wayne Walker, who grew up in the community and still lives nearby. Members of the community, particularly those who belonged to the former St. Mary's Grange, are the ones who have preserved St. Mary's, though it is owned by the Episcopal Church diocese.
The Rev. Brooks Graebner of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church six miles away in downtown Hillsborough, credits the "wonderful collaboration of families, who are not Episcopalian, who have been very generous with their time and talents and love and care for generations now."
Wayne Walker and cousins JoAnna Walker and Iva Walker all remember attending annual homecoming services and dinner at St. Mary's in the 1950s and '60s when they were kids. Their fathers, all brothers, were in the St. Mary's Grange. JoAnna and Iva Walker said they remember preparing the chapel for homecoming by wiping the wooden pews with furniture oil. The Grange began organizing annual homecomings in 1952. This year's event is Sunday. It was also the Grange that led the restoration of the chapel that began in 1967 and was completed in 1991.
Max Isley was the architecture in charge of the restoration. He said when they began, the floor and wall plaster of the chapel was gone. The replacement floors were heart pine. New trusses were built, doubling up on the wood to support buckling walls. The restoration took a long time because fundraising did, too. It was paid for by donations from people in the neighborhood and professional clients of Isley Hawkins Architecture in Durham.
Max and Jane Isley's son Nathan, who now works for the architecture firm, was married in St. Mary's Chapel in 1994. Nathan Isley said it was a special place because of his parents' involvement. The building, which is one room, is rented out for weddings and other services. It has no restroom, but the preschool next door usually lets visitors use its facilities. The preschool was once St. Mary's School, both public and private, and a meeting place for the Grange.
JoAnna Walker said the family feels responsible for keeping up St. Mary's, though it is owned by the Episcopal Church. All three Walker cousins serve on the chapel committee, which also includes other community members as well as Graebner.
"We have an appreciation of what they did for us," Wayne Walker said about his ancestors.
Graebner, who is also the diocese historiographer, said there are few remaining chapels still standing that were established by the crown in North Carolina, and they don't know the location of the ones that are gone. Generally parish chapels were established about six miles apart, he said.
Nels and Nancy Anderson live down St. Mary's Road from the chapel, on the historic Holden Roberts Farm. They've attended homecomings over the years and will record Sunday's events on video. Nels Anderson said they enjoy being a part of local historic preservation so integral to the community's history.
"Families around here have been associated with this place for generations," Anderson said. "It's fun to be a part of that, to appreciate what life must have been like."
For more information about the history of St. Mary's Chapel, contact the Rev. Brooks Graebner at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, 732-9308. For information about reserving the chapel for a wedding or other service, contact Peggy Baucom at 477-7248.
St. Mary's Chapel 250th Anniversary Homecoming
Sunday
3 p.m.: Story circle of shared memories of the chapel
4 p.m.: Pump organ performance by Jane Mary Umstead
5 p.m.: Homecoming service. The preacher is chapel committee member the Rev. Miriam Saxon of Church of the Good Shepherd, Raleigh. Music will be from the Women's Singing Circle led by Mary Rocap and Megan Whitted of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, Hillsborough. A covered dish supper will follow.
St. Mary's Chapel is at the corner of St. Mary's and Schley roads in Hillsborough.
