Wayfarers Chapel may have new home at unused military site
The famed Wayfarers Chapel was closed indefinitely last year due to unprecedented shifting of the ground below it. The church's leadership team made the decision to disassemble the beloved California landmark and wedding venue and reassemble it in another location.
This week, church officials announced that they may have found the chapel's new grounds.
According to the church's website, a new proposed location has been identified at Battery Barnes, a former munitions storage facility for the U.S. Coast Guard, adjacent to Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall.
The four-acre property overlooking the Pacific Ocean was utilized during World War II and remains under Coast Guard jurisdiction. But city officials say the property has been unused for several years and the only structure on the land is vacant.
The glass chapel, which was designated a Historic National Landmark in 2023, could be rebuilt on the hilltop above Point Vicente Lighthouse, a still active navigational landmark that is also the property of the Coast Guard.
While the site has been tabbed as the future home to Wayfarers Chapel, and renderings have been made to show what the new campus may look like, church officials still need to procure the space and raise enough funds to reassemble the church and rebuild the surrounding infrastructure.
The popular wedding chapel, which was designed by famed architect Lloyd Wright (son of Frank Lloyd Wright) in the 1940s, previously stood among a crowd of trees that overlooked Abalone Cove, an area of the California coast that has experienced an ongoing, slow-moving 'geologic hazard.'
Its campus in Rancho Palos Verdes had survived landslides and erosion for years, but those conditions have worsened since 2024, with homes swallowed by shifting hillsides and once-straight roads turned into winding, sloping slaloms.
The chapel has hosted thousands of weddings, including celebrity nuptials, since it opened in 1951. It was closed to the public in February 2024, in hopes that the shifting of land would eventually slow down. But the ground continued to move as much as seven inches per week, officials said at the time.
The chapel was fully disassembled in July 2024, and carefully placed into dedicated storage space.
Dan Burchett, the chapel's executive director, said last year that rebuild efforts could cost as much as $20 million. It's unclear if those estimates have changed in 2025.
If the church is able to secure the site and rebuild at the old military property, the new campus would feature a museum, a visitor's center and 'tranquil gardens,' the church website says.
If leaders secure the money, the site will be rebuilt with a visitor's center, a museum, a cafe and gardens, according to the website, and guests will be treated to the same sweeping ocean views.
For additional information about the proposed site, click here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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