Wayfarers Chapel, a 70-year-old wood and glass church designed by the son of Frank Lloyd Wright, may soon find itself in the company of other Southern California greats, such as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the Rose Bowl.
The Rancho Palos Verdes church was nominated as a National Historic Landmark by a unanimous vote of the National Park System Advisory Board’s National Historic Landmarks Committee earlier this month.
The nomination was the first of a three-step process in gaining the designation, which would make the chapel eligible for federal preservation grants and investment tax credits.
It will now go to the full National Park System Advisory Board, which would then recommend landmark designation to the secretary of the Department of the Interior. The Interior secretary has final approval.
The beauty, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. and perched high on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean, would join other well-known California national landmarks, such as Hearst Castle, Hotel del Coronado and the Santa Barbara Mission, as being officially recognized by the U.S. government for its historical significance.
Only two other South Bay sites have National Historic Landmark designations, both in San Pedro: the Ralph J. Scott, a fireboat from 1925, located near the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, and the SS Lane Victory, in the Port of Los Angeles.
The Los Cerritos Ranch House, in Long Beach, also has a National Historic Landmark designation.
“Wayfarers Chapel remains a mid-century modern masterpiece,” Rev. David Brown, a chapel minister at Wayfarers, said at the virtual meeting, “and it continues to inspire new generations of visitors in unique ways that speak to the human soul.”
Wayfarers is currently undergoing a $7.5 million restoration. Fundraising was cut short because of the pandemic, Jane Siebert, president of the Swedenborgian Church of North America, said at the Thursday, May 12, meeting.
Wayfarers is part of the Swedenborgian Church.
“Designation as a National Historic Landmark,” Siebert said, “will help us significantly with our fundraising efforts and our efforts to preserve Wayfarers in the future.”
Designed by the son of Frank Lloyd Wright — who was commonly called Lloyd Wright to distinguish him from his father — Wayfarers’ concept was the brainchild of Elizabeth Schellenberg, a Swedenborgian Church member, who came up with the concept of building a church on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in the 1920s. More than 3 acres of land was donated by Narcissa Cox Vanderlip to build the church.
Its cornerstone was dedicated in July 1949 and the chapel itself was dedicated by Rev. Leonard Tafel on May 13, 1951.
Philosopher, scientist and church reformer Emanuel Swedenborg started the church that bears his surname in the mid 18th century. Followers founded a small church in London that later made its way to America.
Lloyd Wright’s design is made of wood and the sides and ceiling are glass. Wright’s vision “came from the great cathedrals of redwoods of Northern California,” said Evanne St. Charles, a senior associate with Architectural Resources Group, which helped with the chapel’s historic landmark application.
“The chapel is an exceptional and unique example of a more modern organic religious complex,” St. Charles said at last week’s meeting.
“Wright developed a design for the chapel based on the Swedenborgian concept of the natural church, which he believed was embodied through a forest grove,” St. Charles added. “Wright combined locally sourced materials with modern construction techniques to create a design uniquely suited to the mild climate of the Southern California region.”
Before the pandemic, the church hosted as many as 850 weddings a year, averaging 450 to 600 annually. Besides thousands of weddings, including that of Beach Boys cofounder Brian Wilson, the site has been used in music videos, and television and film shoots.
In 2005, the chapel landed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The chapel, Siebert said, averaged 200,000 visitors a year from around the world before COVID-19.
“We are fortunate that many choose to have a wedding or memorial service or Baptism in this sacred space,” Siebert said. “This supports the upkeep of the grounds, the chapel, the parking lot, the employees.”
The decision last week is the first of “three hoops that need to be jumped through,” Brown said by email on Monday, May 16, before a final decision is made in December or possibly January.
“The good news is that this past Thursday was the most challenging and we passed through it,” Brown wrote. “I believe the other two are formalities and yet still important to the process.”
Malaga Cove Plaza, a set of Mediterranean Revival commercial buildings in neighboring Palos Verdes Estates, was named to the National Register of Historic Places in October. There are more than 90,000 entries in the historic places registry, compared to just 2,500 listed as landmarks, according to the National Park Service website.
Of 146 National Historic Landmarks in California, only 22 are in Los Angeles County. Those NHLs and the date they were designated are:
- Well No. 4, Pico Canyon Oil Field, 1966.
- Los Cerritos Ranch House, 1970.
- Upton Sinclair House, 1971.
- Bradbury Building, 1977.
- David B. Gamble House, 1977.
- Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1984.
- Space Flight Operations Facility (at Jet Propulsion Laboratory), 1985.
- Space Simulator (at JPL), 1985.
- Edwin Hubble House, 1976.
- Rose Bowl, 1987.
- Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome, 1987.
- Hale Solar Observatory, 1989.
- Ralph J. Scott fireboat, 1989.
- Watts Towers, 1990.
- Lane Victory (ship), 1990.
- Angelus Temple, 1992.
- Little Tokyo Historic District, 1995.
- Baldwin Hills Village, 2001.
- Eames House, 2006.
- Hollyhock House, 2007 (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Sr.).
- U.S. Post Office and Court House, 2012.
- Neutra Studio and Residences, 2016.
