Mabel Memorial Chapel

Mabel Memorial Chapel is located in Harrisonburg, Virginia and was built in late 19th century to benefit the rural communities of Rockingham County known as Chestnut Ridge and Ridgeville. U.S. Naval Surgeon Lucien Guy Heneberger provided all the building materials and much of the labor. They asked that the chapel be named in honor of his wife Mabel Grymes Heneberger who died after giving birth to their first child. Services were held in this Chapel for over 108 years. Fall 2006, the 100+ year old roof began to leak. The Mabel Memorial Chapel Congregation informed the "Mother Church" about the roof leak. The trustees of the Mabel Memorial Chapel declined offers to repair the Chapel at no cost. Easter 2007, the mostly elderly congregation was locked out of their Chapel by the trustees. For a while, the Mabel Memorial Chapel Congregation continued holding services outside of their Chapel hoping the "Mother Church-First Presbyterian Church of Harrisonburg" would re-open the doors to the historic Chapel.

U.S. Navy Surgeon Lucien Heneberger also built a one-room school adjacent to the Mabel Memorial Chapel. Recently, the City of Harrisonburg put Condemnation by Eminent Domain of the Mabel Memorial School on the City Council Agenda in order to demolish the Historic One-Room Schoolhouse so a developer could build more townhouses.

After being closed for 3 years, "Demolition by Neglect" is taking its toll on the Historic Mabel Memorial Chapel. Both the Mabel Memorial Chapel and Mabel Memorial Schoolhouse survived the 53"+ inches of snow during the "Snowmagedon" of Winter 2009-2010. Both the Chapel and Schoolhouse are threatened with demolition due to the large scale commercial development neighboring both properties.

An application was filed in 2007 with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources to landmark the Mabel Memorial Chapel. To date, the Commonwealth of Virginia has taken no action to protect nor landmark the Mabel Memorial Chapel.

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