A Plea to the Parishioners of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

By Joseph Nazar, North County News, Vol. 2 No. 47, May 7 - 13, 1980

I, a young Presbyterian very much interested in the heritage of Yorktown, should like to address all the parishioners of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton church:

You are about to erect a new house of worship which shall include, in addition to a regular church, a chapel. The latter shall have a seating capacity of about 800 persons, as compared with the present chapel at Mohegan, which has a capacity of 200 persons. Thusly, the Mohegan chapel shall no longer be needed, and as I understand it, shall become a financial burden. Indeed the possibility of its being sold looms on the horizon.

I beg each and every one of you, including your spiritual leaders, to come together and save this magnificent structure, once known as St. George's Church. There are many reasons why you should do so, one of which being the fact that it is a part of your rich history. The chapel was erected in 1913 by Mrs. Aimee (La Farge) Heins in memory of her husband, George Heins, the first architect of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, the largest gothic cathedral in the world. (Heins' firm also drew up the plans for St. George's). Aimee's mother, at her residence (the present La Farge house, opposite the chapel), sponsored the first Catholic masses regularly held in Yorktown, in the early 1870's. Her sister was Louise, the Countess of Agreda, Spain, and her brother was John La Farge (1835-1910), the renowned artist and author, whose inquiring mind was considered by Henry Adams to be one of the most complex in American. Aimee's illustrious family also included her nieces Agnes, the Countess de Merlemont, and Aimee, a Duchess of Argyll, Scotland, through her marriage into the Campbell's, one of the most successful and prominent noble families in British history. In the chapel, there are stained glass windows and Stations of the Cross dedicated to all these persons.

Thusly, this House of God has a great heritage which lends it so much of its beauty. However, this beauty also comes from its architecture, for the chapel was constructed in the style of the old church of Normandy. The stained-glass windows are a treat to watch when the sunlight strikes them, and they turn into blazes of glorious colors. There is a real feeling - or rather, experience -  tranquility in this stone sanctuary, where the honest Christian can feel the presence of God as being quite near.

There are all the "physical" reasons as to why the former St. George's church should be preserved as an integral part of your parish, and there are others: the human reasons. Many of you have fond remembrances of the chapel being the only Catholic Church in northern Yorktown and the adjacent vicinity. (The Catholic Church at Yorktown Heights was once a mission church of St. George's, until c. 1934, when the reverse became true.) Baptisms, first Holy Communions and weddings which took place in it, even after a separate parish, the Seton parish, was created, in 1963. Would you have this shrine to your most treasured memories disappear forever?

Of course, I could go on and on extolling the beauty and history of the building, but I am not one of your parish fathers, who are charged with the herculean task of providing the needed Christian services in these days of soaring inflation. This is why I should now like to suggest some ideas for saving the chapel, such as converting it into a parish hall for functions and dances, this being an example of who it could remain tax-exempt. Perhaps the unique structure can be made into a religious museum, or designated a religious historic site with the aid of Federal grants and the like. Even if your parish were not able to keep the building at all, you should see to it that it not be destroyed; the chapel could be sold to another recognized Christian denomination, with the condition that the name "St. George", the stained glass windows and so on be retained. There is even the possibility of selling it, under the same condition, to a non-religious organization which might desire it as a home for a secular museum or library.