The historic chapel of St. Andrew’s-by-the-Sea in Rye Beach, which held its first service exactly 150 years ago this month, is a visual feast — both inside and out.
The inside, with its great wooden trusses, is designed to look like a boat built upside down.
The outside is postcard perfect, a living time capsule, with arched brick windows and rough-hewn stone walls. There's are Tiffany stained glass, tributes to poet Ogden Nash, and a rare “lych gate” — or roofed gateway — at the chapel’s entrance.
While the Episcopal summer chapel is open to people of any faith, St. Andrew’s doors will be wide open this Saturday as they throw a 150th celebration.
There will be tours of the chapel and grounds, discussion of the architecture and famous visitors, a concert by the Portsmouth Brass Quintet, a food truck serving Texas-style barbecue, and a historic Concord Coach on loan from the Abbot-Downing Historical Society.
It is a time to celebrate, and to reflect, said Gary Fincke, a senior warden who has attended services at St. Andrew’s-by-the-Sea for about three decades.
“It really is a special place right here by the ocean with a lot of history and a lot of care,” he said, “over 150 years of people who really valued this and have really have kept it and maintained it and made sure that it continues to flourish — not only for us now, but for future generations.”
The chapel is in the Gothic Revival style, inspired by English country parish churches. It is typically open from the middle of June through Labor Day weekend.
“But we do have baptisms and we have funerals here, and we have weddings,” Fincke said after a Sunday service last month. “And so that can also extend either into the fall or as early as in May. . . . We really make it available to people whenever it might be of service to them.”
Traditionally, a minister would arrive on the New Hampshire Seacoast and stay for the summer to serve at the chapel. Nowadays, they host visiting clergy each Sunday. Earlier this summer, Bishop Robert Hirschfeld with the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire presided over a service.
The chapel is entirely run by volunteers, and has had numerous benefactors since 1876. Its supporters included, more recently, the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, which awarded a $50,000 grant in 2017 to help the chapel replace its original slate roof. St. Andrew’s was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
When the summer chapel first got going, it started without glazed windows, Fincke noted — just white cloth hanging in the windows. The windows today include Tiffany stained glass and designs by noted artist John LaFarge. The prominent round window visible from the street — aptly named Church Road — is the second rendition of that window, Fincke said.
The window emits a warm glow with morning sunlight and can be seen from the brick walkway and lych gate — a traditional roofed gateway, the use of which dates back to medieval times. A lych gate’s historical purpose was to shelter a coffin and the funeral bearers awaiting a burial, and otherwise demarcate the entrance to a churchyard.
There is a small cemetery on the grounds. It contains the tombs of Frank and Elizabeth Philbrick, and their heirs. The family, which donated land for the chapel, owned and operated the legendary Farragut Hotel nearby.
During the late 1880s, people attending St. Andrew’s would often arrive by coach or on horseback, and they would use the stone platform next to the lych gate.
Another of the chapel’s windows captures attention: The first window near the door on the south side of the chapel is in memory of poet Ogden Nash, who served as secretary of St. Andrew’s for 25 years before his death in 1971. He summered nearby in North Hampton. In the lower right corner of the window, there’s a profile of the poet, including his spectacles.
The newest improvement on the grounds is a pavilion to support receptions and gatherings after services or events.
“That actually gives us a space for our hospitality after church Sundays, where people can come and gather,” Fincke said. “We've had tents here before and challenges with that. So now we have a permanent structure, which is also very helpful for weddings and for baptisms and inclement weather, where they have a place to meet just before coming into the church, which oftentimes, especially with weddings, that's particularly helpful.”
A few minutes after Fincke was speaking about weddings, a couple that got married at the chapel about 15 years ago happened to walk in the door.
Cindy and John Conrad of Dover said they come back to the chapel every year on their anniversary. And they bring their kids.
“It was wonderful,” John said when asked about their ceremony.
“Magical,” Cindy said.
