Irving Gill Chapel Memorial Page

Don’t forget that “Other” Irving Gill page “Irving Gill Central”

Photo by Amie K. Hayes

If anyone has photos of the demo, I'd like to add them to this album. Message me with them!

Has anyone else photographed the chapel's demolition? Trying to collect photos...

Irving Gill Chapel demo, Aug 21, 2017
Photo by Peter Hill

If anyone has photos of the demo, I'd like to add them to this album. Message me with them!

I heard the Irving Gill Chapel was demolished yesterday. Can anyone verify this, and does anyone have photos if it happening?😢

It has deteriorated considerably in 2 years. I hear it will be demoed very soon. :( Cross is missing.

The cross is missing off the top 😩 pic tomorrow.

I got this wonderful idea. There is this 1913 silent movie theater of about 300 seats on Imperial Avenue the "Victory" that needs a decent usage and restoration to look like the photo attached, and they have a vacant lot next door that would fit the chapel. Imperial Ave is destined for greatness, all it needs for its Renaissance is for a few business or interesting venues to attract visitors. It's going to happen, and you can get in on the ground floor, so to speak. The two buildings would be a great physical match and the start of a critical mass of greatness. David Alvarez should be in on this to make this happen in his district. This could have been done already by the City for what the spent on the Jacobs bypass EIR.

Quick update...There is a party working out details to move the chapel, looks hopeful.

Church offers chapel to anyone who will move it SAN DIEGO -- A local church is offering a free chapel to anyone who is willing to move it to a new location. The historic house of worship has been on the grounds of St. Luke's Episcopal Church for...

Chapel free for the taking
St. Luke's offers $10K to relocate century-old structure
By Roger Showley; Jan. 26, 2015

Want a North Park historic chapel and $10,000 to move it?

That's the offer from St. Luke's Episcopal Church at 3725 30th St., which says it can no longer maintain its adjacent chapel building.

The 1897-1900 building, designed in mission-style architecture, had been relocated in the 1924 from its original Hillcrest home where it served as the All Saints' Episcopal Church first sanctuary.

The Episcopal diocese's attorney, Scott Moomjian, posted a notice on Facebook, saying, the church is "offering $10,000 if anyone can take the building to their own lot and hopefully restore it to its full glory."

Bruce C***s, executive director of Save Our Heritage Organisation, also has called attention to the chapel.

Episcopal spokeswoman Hannah Wilder said the diocese is actually offering only $7,500 to help move the chapel. She said the diocese hopes to have the building moved or demolished by the end of the year because of concerns about vandalism and breakins.

"It's really a liability for us," she said. "We have 'unwelcome lodgers' who break in, drugs and prostitution... We recognize it's an eyesore."

She said the diocese's long-term plan is to redevelop the property as an affordable housing site, a community services center or other church-related operations. An retail or restaurant use is not an option and the $200,000 cost to restore and preserve the building onsite is prohibitive..

"We'd like it to be of service to the community," she said of any new building.

Although the building is described as the "Irving Gill chapel," two historians disagree.

All Saints' historian, UC San Diego history professor Stephen Cox, said architect C.A. Logan was the designer of the original structure in 1897 and that it was relocated and then doubled to its present size by 1900.

Citing church records, he said Gill, an early proponent of modern architecture, and his business partner William Hebbard, an expert in the post-Victorian craftsman style, submitted plans in 1902 for a larger church in the mission style that was never built.

A few years later after the partnership dissolved, Hebbard and architect Carleton Winslow who was working on 1915 exposition plans for Balboa Park, designed the new All Saints church that opened in 1912 and still stands today.

Historical researcher Sarai Johnson, citing property records and newspaper accounts, believes Hebbard designed the chapel as it appears in an early photo and on city maps. Both Hebbard and Gill were All Saints parishioners.

Regardless of who did what, both Cox and Johnson said the chapel should be preserved because of its architectural style and its history as the first church in Hillcrest.

"I hope they preserve the structure," Cox said.

Added Johnson, "It's going to have to be a community effort if it's going to happen."

In 1958, St. Luke's opened a much larger church next door and the old chapel took on a variety of functions. It was even leased in recent years to a local architect as his office It is now boarded up.

Church secretary Donna Kuhn said the main church holds Sunday services for about 50 families of the local Sudanese community and a few other long-time members and hosts a variety of community meetings during the week.

Katherine Hon, secretary of the North Park Historical Society, said her group would prefer the church restore and find new uses for the chapel. If it has to move, the task will be to find someone, a group or an agency that could cover the costs.

"The chapel needs a champion," she said.

http://www.utsandiego.com/…/jan/26/luke-chapel-gill-reloca…/