Wayfarers Chapel finds potential new home in Rancho Palos Verdes

Wayfarers Chapel may have found a new home that would keep the beloved landmark in Rancho Palos Verdes.

Accelerated land movements forced the dismantling of the Lloyd Wright building last year, with the intention of reconstructing the chapel in a new location.

Its future seemed uncertain for months, but days ago the popular glass clifftop chapel said it’s zeroed in on a spot outside the city’s landslide zone for a rebuild.

‘An ideal site’

Next to the Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall sits Battery Barnes, a former military site once housed guns for the Coast Guard. The four acres of land has gone unused for decades. If everything goes according to plan, it will house the restored Wayfarers chapel, as well as a new visitors center, museum, cafe, and gardens.

An artistic rendering of the new Wayfarers Chapel campus on the Battery Barnes in Rancho Palos Verdes.

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Robert Carr, the administrative director of Wayfarers, says the land is “the ideal site.”

“The coastal views and the hilltop location match the original location in an uncanny way,” he says.

He adds the re-location is a win-win for Rancho Palos Verdes, who helped scout the site and have been wanting to develop the old military buildings near City Hall.

“They’ve really lacked a compelling kind of draw to help bring the public in and also help finance some of the rebuilding, and Wayfarers Chapel can solve both those problems,” Carr tells LAist.

To rebuild the chapel alone, Wayfarers needs to raise at least $10 million.

A portion the historic Wayfarers Chapel has had many glass panels removed while it is being disassembled in Rancho Palos Verdes on May 29, 2024.

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Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag

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Los Angeles Times

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As to the expansion of the site, an estimated $20 million would need to be raised for additions like a visitor’s center and a cafe.

He says preliminary architecture work was done in the last few months to determine the exact location where the chapel would sit. However, some pieces still need to fall into place before Wayfarers can break ground.

“We’re confident that we’ll be able to raise enough money to rebuild at least the chapel quite soon after we get titled to the land,” Carr says.

Not a done deal

An artistic rendering of the front of Wayfarers Chapel on the Battery Barnes in Rancho Palos Verdes.

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Wayfarers Chapel

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The Battery Barnes is still owned by the military, and a land transfer needs to take place for the project to commence.

“It’s certainly not a done deal and we don’t want to get out ahead of that,” Carr says.

According to Carr, city leaders in Rancho Palos Verdes have already started reaching out to the federal government about the transfer.

Something for everyone

Carr says the Battery Barnes site is one of the last unbuilt areas on the peninsula that’s “surrounded literally on all sides by nature preserve land…you see hardly any buildings at all”.

He says Wayfarers has spoken with the Rancho Palos Verdes School District about potentially using the new site for education purposes.

“We were talking about including museum displays…for school groups to come and spend a few hours learning about the local history…go for a walk on the nature preserve land, learn about nature,” he says.

Although a lot needs to happen, Carr says all those original parts are still safe in storage, and detailed architectural designs of the building are expected to be finished by next winter. When the time comes to rebuild, they want to be ready.

“Our services have always been open to all comers. The Wayfarers is really a traveler. Anyone who is coming by and needs any kind of succor or pause or rest, that’s fundamental to our theology,” he says.

An artistic rendering of the view from the highway of the Wayfarers Chapel in its new home. The Point Vicente Lighthouse is seen below the chapel.

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