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Seeing Stars: Churches of the Stars..

5755 Palos
Verdes Drive South,
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. / (310) 377-1650
In February 2024, it was announced that Wayfarers Chapel will be
temporarily closed due to safety concerns about shifting ground in the
area.
The Chapel sits above Abalone Cove,
a part of Palos Verdes known for landslides, and of late they have been
spotting worrisome signs (such as large cracks In the walkways and broken
window glass). It's also believed that recent heavy rains may have
aggravated the accelerated land movement.
They brought in city inspectors, who did not red-tag the Chapel,
but out of an abundance of caution, they voluntarily closed the chapel
and its grounds for an indefinite period.
By July, the slow landslide had intensified, and the land under
the church had been moving at a rate up to nine inches per week,
increasing the danger that the Chapel could be lost .
So they have decided to disassemble the Chapel, piece by piece, and put it in storage until the current crisis is over.
They hope to eventually reassemble it, preferably in the same location,
if possible, but otherwise, somewhere nearby in the Palos Verdes
area.
I will leave this page up, for those who would like to read about
the Chapel, and will post an update when I learn that it has been
restored.
But bear in mind that the article below was written while the Chapel was
open for business as usual, and that, for now, the Chapel is off-limits
to the public
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Some
places just seem custom-made for Hollywood weddings. Such is the case of
the Wayfarers' Chapel, a strikingly beautiful redwood & glass
church nestled in a wooded hillside overlooking the blue Pacific, on the
affluent Palos Verdes peninsula.
Architect Lloyd Wright
(Frank's Lloyd Wright's
son) designed this unique glass church in 1946.
(He also designed another local landmark: the original Hollywood Bowl.)

Surrounded by acres of gardens and a small forest of towering redwoods,
Wayfarers' Chapel achieves Wright's goal of seamlessly blending man-made
architecture into its natural environment.
Made of crystal clear glass, local stone and a framework of aged redwood
timbers, the petite Chapel allows the full glory of its natural surroundings to
shine through. Inside the church, you'll find a natural-stone waterfall
for an altar, and outside you'll discover one of the most spectacular ocean
views this side of Hawaii.
 This
is a working church (with Sunday services at 10 AM), so not surprisingly
it has been the site of several celebrity weddings. Most notably, actress
Jayne Mansfield
got married to Mickey Hargitay
(a former Mr. Universe) here in January of 1958. (In the 1980 TV movie
about their lives, Jayne was played by Loni Anderson,
and Mickey was played by a then little-known Arnold
Schwarzenegger.) Their daughter,
Mariska Hargitay, stars in "ER."
as 'Cynthia Cooper'. |

M*A*S*H's 'Radar
O'Reilly' (Gary Burghoff)
was also married at this picturesque, woodsy chapel - in 1971. |

In 1989, actor Dennis
Hopper ("Easy Rider,"
"Blue Velvet") got married for the fourth time here, to
a 22-year-old ballerina who was 31 years his junior. Wedding guests included
Kiefer Sutherland
and Carol Kane,
and the ring-bearer was Roddy McDowall.
(The marriage lasted three years.) |
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And
on February 6, 1995, Beach Boys' leader Brian
Wilson got married at the chapel. His
fellow bandmates attended, as did his daughters, Carnie & Wendy, who
sung "God Only Knows." Said Brian: "The vibrations
in that chapel were so wonderful."
In 2004, on the Fox
TV show "The O.C.", 'Julie Cooper' (Melinda
Clarke) was married 'Caleb Nichol' at
Wayfarer's Chapel. A year later, when the character of 'Caleb' died, his
funeral was held at the same Chapel.
It also appeared in variety of TV shows ranging from "Sliders" to "Hunter".
In 2015, it showed up on Season 2 of "True Detective" as "The Panticapaeum Institute".
The
three and a half-acre grounds around the church feature flower gardens,
woodsy walkways that smell of pine trees, and an information center dedicated
to the little-known religious philosophy known as Swedenborgism. In this
hushed hilltop oasis, it's sometimes difficult to remember that you are
only minutes away from the downtown rush of the South Bay, and it is not
hard to see why so many couples find this spot an ideal place to tie the
knot.
Hours: The
Chapel is open 9 AM to 5 PM. Sunday worship services at 10 AM.
Getting
there: Wayfarers'
Chapel is located on a woodsy hillside just above Palos Verdes Drive South
(near Abalone Cove). A short road leads up from Palos Verdes Drive to the
chapel grounds. / Palos Verdes is located about twenty miles south
of Hollywood, and can be reached by taking the San Diego (405) Freeway
to the Hawthorne Boulevard exit, then heading south on Hawthorne Boulevard
(about six miles) into the hills. / To reach the chapel, take Hawthorne
Boulevard over the Palos Verdes hill (another five miles or so), to
Palos Verdes Drive. Turn left on Palos Verdes Drive, and follow
it southeast (about two miles) around past the old Marineland site, between
Seacove Drive and Narcissa Drive. Look for
the signs pointing out the road leading up to the Wayfarers' Chapel, then
turn left (north) into the chapel's parking lot..
[You can
access the church's official website at http://www.wayfarerschapel.org
or these other web pages about Wayfarer's Chapel at: http://sanpedrochamber.com/champint/wayfarch.htm
and http://www.wedstar.com/WayfarersChapel.]
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