RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. (KABC) — The historic Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes may have found a new home about one mile west of its original site after landslides forced its closure last year.
The potential new location is on the old Battery Barnes military site, next to Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall.
The chapel was closed in February 2024 because the land beneath it continued to shift at an accelerated rate. It was disassembled and stored in July 2024.
The Rancho Palos Verdes community has been dealing with the effects of landslides for years, with SoCalGas shutting off service and residents forced out of their homes.
Although they found a prospective new site, the chapel’s website states they still need to raise rebuilding funds and secure the site before moving forward with rebuilding.
Officials had previously said they needed to raise at least $20 million and then another $1 million to return to couples for wedding cancellation fees.
The new chapel will have a museum, a cafe, tranquil gardens, and a visitors center.
Artistic renderings show the chapel rebuilt on the potential site on the Alta Vicente hilltop with views of the Pacific and the Point Vicente Lighthouse.
The chapel had been a wedding, worship, and filming destination for 73 years, according to Wayfarers Executive Director Dan Burchett.
The 100-seat, glass chapel opened in 1951. The natural sanctuary made of Palos Verdes stone, redwood, and glass was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., a son of the famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, as a tree chapel that helps people feel a connection to God and nature, according to the chapel’s website.
It was designated a national historic landmark in 2023.
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