St. Peter's Chapel, Mare Island

St. Peter's Chapel, Mare Island
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
St Peter's Chapel in Chapel Park at Mare Island, Vallejo, California
Location	1181 Walnut Avenue, Vallejo, California 94592
Coordinates	38°5′40″N 122°16′13″W / 38.09444°N 122.27028°W / 38.09444; -122.27028
Area	Chapel Park, Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Built	1901, dedicated 13 October 1901
Architect	Albert Sutton
Architectural style	Shingled Gothic church
NRHP reference No.	75002103[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	15 May 1975
Designated NHL	15 May 1975

St. Peter's Chapel, Mare Island (locally, St. Peter's Chapel) is an historic church building located on Walnut Avenue near Cedar Avenue, Vallejo, Solano County, California, in the historic core of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. It is the first Naval chapel in the Pacific, the first interdenominational chapel in the armed services,^[2] and the second chapel built on a U.S. Navy property, the first being the original Naval chapel in Annapolis replaced in 1904.^[3] Dedicated on 13 October 1901, St. Peter's Chapel is the oldest extant Naval chapel in the United States. It is "a key contributing element of the Mare Island Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places and a National Historic Landmark, and individually, as one of the most important chapels owned by the U.S. Navy."^[4]: 2

The person most responsible for the presence of St. Peter's Chapel at Mare Island was Rev. Adam A. McAlister (1841-1916), chaplain in the U.S. Navy from 1873 to 1909, serving almost all of those years at Mare Island.^[5]: 94 During the decades he served before the chapel was built, he would hold services at whatever space could be "rigged for church" with minimal disruption to ordinary functions.^[6]: 138 Not satisfied with this makeshift arrangement, McAlister was able to convince his friend U.S. Senator George C. Perkins to include a $5000 appropriation in the 1900 Naval Appropriations Act for the construction of a chapel at Mare Island.^{[6]: 137  [5]: 136–137}

McAlister quickly hired San Francisco architect, Albert Sutton, to draw up plans for a chapel at Mare Island, paid him $50 presumably from donations for his services, and forwarded Sutton's plans to the Navy Department in Washington, D.C. on 30 November 1900, only months after the congressional appropriation. The chapel was largely completed in 1901, had its first service on 6 October 1901, was dedicated on 13 October 1901 by various Protestant clergies, followed a month later by its first Catholic mass. Interdenominational from its beginning, St. Peter's Chapel was named after Simon, called Peter, a sailor, whose story is told in the Gospels.^[7]

Over the next decades, art glass windows and many of the interior furnishings were added and paid for by parishioners and private contributions. The stained glass windows were typically donated by family members in memory of U.S. Navy personnel; commemorative ceiling and wall tablets were likewise dedicated to various individuals and groups. Most of the art glass windows were in place by McAlister's funeral at St. Peter's Chapel in 1916.^[4]: 6

The chapel served the Mare Island community—Naval and Marine officers, enlisted men and women, as well as the civilian workforce—much like a local community church. It was a focus of life on the base, with the art glass windows and commemorative tablets contributed by the community reflecting the sense of community and continuity that existed at the base through its numerous decades of service. For many generations, it was the site for various key transitional events, like weddings, baptisms, and funerals. World War II brought the greatest number of weddings to the chapel, as young sailors got married just before being sent off to the Pacific Theater. As historian McDonald noted, "The chapel, more than any other building, bears witness to the closeness of the community that developed at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard."^[4]: 7

Over 300 persons crowded into the chapel on Christmas Eve of 1995 for the last scheduled service before the closure of the base on 31 March 1996. The fourth and last advent candle was lit by Captain Cavender, the last Shipyard Commander, and his wife. As it was for numerous decades, the last scheduled service at St. Peter's Chapel ended with the singing of the Navy hymn, Eternal Father, Strong to Save.^[8]

St. Peter's Chapel is a wood-framed, one-story, Shingled Gothic-style, cruciform church building, with a steep front gabled roof over a rectangular nave, a cross-gabled chancel, and a rectangular sanctuary.

St. Peter’s Chapel is noted for its art glass windows. There are in total 29 such windows, each donated typically in memory of U.S. Navy personnel. These windows beautify the chapel as well as symbolize the community spirit with which it was built and maintained through the decades. The large triptych window at the back of the chapel, the front facade near the main vestibule entrance, is about Simon, called Peter, a sailor for whom the chapel is named, and is dedicated to Admirals Sloat and Farragut and Commodore Stockton, the three men most responsible for establishing a presence for the U.S. Navy in California in the mid-1800s.^[4]: 12

Of the 29 art glass windows that grace St. Peter's Chapel, 25 are from Tiffany Studios^[9] and 16 of them are signed,^[10] which gives the chapel one of the largest collection of Tiffany windows under one roof in the U.S. The large Tiffany window on the right side of the sanctuary is a pastoral view of the Good Shepherd and dedicated to Chaplain Adam McAlister. The Tiffany rose window high above the altar in the sanctuary is the ascendant Christ and is dedicated to all those in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps who served on the Pacific Ocean.^[10]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to St. Peter's Chapel, Mare Island.

• Highsmith, Carol (2013). "This is one of the astonishing collection of 25 Louis Comfort Tiffany stained-glass windows that illuminate Saint Peter's Chapel on Mare Island, California". Library of Congress. Featuring a photo of the in situ stain glass crafted by Tiffany Studios: "The Sower", Rear Admiral Du Pont Memorial Window.