chapel of my eye

sellwood chapel/oaks pioneer church



although i'm not particularly religious by any organized standard (i generally go with dog), i have always had a fascination for little chapels. when i lived in the southwest, i would often take drives on the weekend and find these chapels in every small town. i loved photographing them but since this was the time before digital photography, i have never converted these photos to share with you. i will try to work on this. but in the meantime, i would love to show you some of the chapels i have found around portland. today, i'll start with probably the most well-known of them all, the sellwood chapel, also known as the oaks pioneer church.

the chapel was originally built in 1851 and was called the st. john's episcopal church. it has moved three times from its original location in milwaukie to its current location in sellwood, where it has been since 1961.

in 1960 it had fallen into disuse and was scheduled for demolition but a group of people raised $4300 to move the chapel (by boat) to its current sellwood location and this is when it took on the name of oaks pioneer church. the chapel now hosts about 300 weddings a year.
www.oakspioneerchurch.org

when i was looking for information on the chapel, i came across this beautiful local wedding blog. so if you're thinking about getting hitched, this looks like a great resource. (night time photo from modern romance)
modern romance