Repurposed

 I can just remember a little chapel sitting back off the road. It looked a little forlorn and forgotten. I never paid it much mind, just an old building on a lot, with a cross upon it. It was called Saint Mathews. My mother told me of attending services there as a child. It wasn't far from grandmother Bennet's home. Now I admit she didn't say much about it at all, at least not that I recall, being a kid I wasn't really listening most of the time anyway. That's one of those things that you learn too late, to listen. Well, maybe not to listen but to ask more questions for sure. But that little chapel was just there, had always been there and I figured would always be there unless it collapses or something. I couldn't say when or if it was being used in the late fifties and early sixties. That it belonged to St. Lukes church, I knew, I thought of it as an annex of sorts. St. Lukes is a fine big church, a cathedral compared to St. Mathews, erected across from the village green. It's an imposing stone structure and where I was baptized, took my first Holy Communion, and saw my sister married there. But St. Mathews? I seem to remember going inside just once, to have a look. Guess I wasn't impressed however as I don't remember what it looked like.
 I ran across a small newspaper article about this chapel recently. This article explained how that chapel had been a nondenominational chapel for many years. In the article they explained that when Reverend Teder became the Rector of St. Lukes Church they took control of the chapel naming it St Mathews. I don't know if it had a different name before that. But in 1976 a Mister Robert Sage purchased the building and had it moved to the Maidstone Marina. My Dad worked there for a time as a marine mechanic. Anyway, it was to be used as a chapel for the Mariners. Well the thinking was those folks that docked at the Marina for the weekends could use that building, not sure who was officiating services or indeed if services were ever held. Perhaps it was just a place to pray, I couldn't say for sure. By 1998 the outside of the building remained unchanged but inside it had been remodeled for use as a health center. Yes, basically a gym. What an inglorious end to a fine chapel.
 I don't know anything about the chapel/gym today. I can't say whether it still exists or not. I just remember it being that little white chapel off of the Three Mile Harbor Road that I passed on the way uptown. I hope it still sits on a little hill at the Marina overlooking Three Mile Harbor. That would be fitting indeed. Unbeknownst to me as a young man living there I have many ancestors who lost their lives on the sea and in Gardiners Bay where Three Mile Harbor can be found. Seafarers, whalers and fisherman all, I'm certain many a prayer for them was whispered in that chapel. I'm certain there is a great deal more history to that chapel, perhaps one day I'll get a chance to explore that.
  It does please me that the chapel was repurposed, a kind of tradition where I grew up. Folks there didn't throw anything away. They also had a thing about saving old buildings. A great number of them have been relocated from there original sites. It was a thing back in the day, and laughed about by some, don't change anything! Well by most accounts that has certainly changed over time. I know my own childhood home has been torn down. In all fairness it wasn't a historical place having been built some time shortly after WW2. Oh I hear certain buildings have been protected and saved still and that is a good thing. There are those that believe they can just purchase heritage. They are not from the old families that settled that place, not at all, but enjoy thinking so. For that reason they attempt to just buy that. I guess it's a compliment in a way. Strikes me more like creating a theme park however, you know all of the old with modern amenities. Heritage repurposed as entertainment. A benevolent gentrification.