Musser Memorial Chapel
Adamstown, Lancaster County, PA
Built in 1907
Above: Sunrise at the chapel. A Porte-cochère (carriage porch) shelters the chapel’s entry door. The porch also serves as the gateway into Cedar Grove Cemetery.
Description in Our Present Past (1985)
By the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County:
“Musser Chapel (Cedar Grove Chapel), Broad Street, west side, (south of Walnut Street; 1907; this tile-roofed sandstone Romanesque Revival chapel / gateweay was designed by Muhlenbert Brothers of Reading, and built by John Zerbe in memory of John and Cassiah Musser.” Our Present Past, page 26, Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County
Above: In Memory of John and Cassiah Musser 1907. The chapel was built in 1907 by their son Peter Miller Musser, who had become a prosperous businessman in Iowa. The chapel was gifted to the Borough of Adamstown that same year.
Above: Erected by Peter Miller Musser of Muscatine, Iowa. Building Committee:Ludwig Talbot Custer, Elmer Ellsworth Billingfelt, John Musser Frame.
Built with Local Red Sandstone:
The Sunday News, Lancaster, PA. Oct. 31, 1926
The Local Bedrock & Building Stone
Triassic Hammer Creek Sandstone:
Above: The church is constructed of Triassic sandstone of the Hammer Creek Formation. The tan-colored bedrock in this map is diabase, “ironstone”, which is usually dark gray to black in color. Image source: PaGEODE map. (Church icon added)
The Musser Chapel at Sunrise:
Gateway into the Cedar Grove Cemetery
Also is the Church’s Carriage Porch:
Above: The building’s Romanesque Revival design included a keystoned arch for the cemetery gateway, which also serves as the church’s Porte-cochère (carriage porch).
Above: Interior view
Chapel built by Peter Musser
An Adamstown Resident who Became
a Pioneer Lumberman of the Midwest:
Above: Peter Miller Musser: Image source: American Lumbermen The Personal History…, 1905, Vol 1.
Peter Miller Musser (1841 - 1919) grew up here in Adamstown. As a young man he moved to Iowa and became one of the early leaders in the lumber industry. He eventually became known as the dean of the lumber business along the Mississippi River.
Peter’s Miller’s parents operated a store in Adamstown. He received only a common school education but became one of the most successful businessmen of Iowa. He built this chapel as a memorial to his parents, and gifted it to the town of Adamstown. The nondenominational chapel also serves as the gateway into the town’s cemetery.