Yosemite Falls above the Chapel in Color

Yosemite National Park is intriguing. Lots to discover there. In 1863, Albert Bierstadt painted  Domes of Yosemite. That’s the very same painting that inspired my recent book, Indigo Sky. In my next book, my heroine is born in Yosemite. So, I am researching again. This time my research  unveiled the chapel. The chapel is located just below Yosemite Falls, that’s depicted in the painting.

Yosemite Falls above the Chapel in black & white, different angle than above

The Yosemite Valley Chapel was built in the Yosemite Valley of California in 1879. It is the oldest standing structure in Yosemite National Park.

Chapel snuggled between mountains and trees

The wooden chapel was designed by San Francisco architect Charles Geddes in the Carpenter Gothic style. It was built by Geddes’ son-in-law, Samuel Thompson of San Francisco, for the California State Sunday School Association, at a cost of three or four thousand dollars.

The chapel was originally built in the “Lower Village” as called then, its site at the present day trailhead of the Four Mile Trail . The chapel was moved to its present location in 1901, as the old Lower Village dwindled.

As stipulated in the organization’s application for permission, the chapel is an interdenominational facility. The L-shaped frame chapel covers an area of about 1,470 square feet (137 m²). It is clad in board and batten siding with a prominent steeple. It seats about 250 people.

Preservation

Snow in the park, there is snow in California

The chapel was restored in 1965, when its foundations were raised in response to a 1964 flood, but was damaged in the 1997 Yosemite Valley floods and required repair. The chapel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 12, 1973.

Fascinating, this Yosemite National Park.

Fall colors

Do you think you might like to hike one of the trails?