Boehm’s Chapel
Willow Street, Lancaster County, PA
Built in 1791
Above: Boehm’s Chapel is the first Methodist church constructed in Lancaster County. It was built in 1791. It also is the oldest existing structure built for Methodist church services in Pennsylvania.
It’s a Pennsylvania state historic site.
Above: In 1984 the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission listed this property as a state historic site. In 1991 the Boehm’s Chapel Society restored the building to its 1791 appearance.
The Local Bedrock:
Limestone, Dolomite, and Marble:
Above: The chapel was constructed with local limestone of the Conestoga Formation. The chapel’s building stone could also include dolomite and marble of the Vintage Formation bedrock, which underlies this historic site. Image is based on: Geologic Map of Pennsylvania, by Berg, Edmonds, Geyer, etc., 1980.
Local Marble Described
in a 1929 Geology Book:
Above: “Folded micaceous marble of Conestoga Formation, in a quarry a half-mile northwest of Quarryville.”
“There are many good exposures of micaceous marble, highly folded or crumpled, in cuts of the Atglen and Susquehanna branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad north and east of Quarryville and for 2 miles east of Shenks Ferry. Here beds of marble and siliceous marble alternate with beds of micaceous calcareous schist. Cleavage diagonal to the bedding, which is marked in the micaceous layers, is absent in purer marble beds made up of calcite and without the platy mineral, mica.”
Above image and quotes: Geology of the McCalls Ferry-Quarryville District, Pennsylvania, by Eleanora Bliss Knopf and Anna I. Jonas. 1929.
It’s named a “Temple of Limestone.”
Is it also a Temple of Marble?
See: A Temple of Limestone: The History of Boehm’s Chapel, 1771 to 1791, Author: Abram W. Sangrey, 1991.
Further analysis of Boehm’s Chapel’s building stone might reveal that it is not only a “Temple of Limestone.” It might also be a temple of limestone and marble, both.
Historical Sign at the Chapel:
The Chapel before Restoration:
Above: The Boehm’s Chapel Society restored the chapel in 1991 to its 1791 appearance. Previously the stone exterior had been covered with whitewash. Image source: LancasterHistory. Date unknown.
Description in Our Present Past (1985)
By the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County:
“Boehm’s Methodist Episcopal Church, Boehm’s Road, south side, west of Route 272; 1791; one and one-half story, three bay stone meetinghouse; closed-in windows in gable peak with brick arches; 1791 datestone also reads “reopened 1883”; may be the oldest extant Methodist church in Lancaster County; Martin Boehm, a local Mennonite who had broken away from that church, played a large role in founding both the Methodist and Brethren churches in Lancaster County.” Our Present Past, page 280, Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County.