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	Magnolia Chapel Demolished By Kristen Grieco Gloucester Daily Times January 23, 2008 http://www.gloucestertimes.com/punews/local_story_023000510.html?keyword=secondarystory F ormer parishioners and local historians looked on with sadness yesterday as St. Joseph Chapel, once a central gathering place for the Magnolia Catholic community, was torn down. The chapel was destroyed in hopes that the property will become more appealing for sale, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of Boston. The last Mass there was celebrated on Christmas Eve 2004. The chapel was closed and the property put up for sale as part of the church reorganization plan, under which the archdiocese attempted to recoup some of its losses from the settlements in the clergy sexual abuse scandal. The rubble on the Ocean Street lot was separated into neat piles of wood, metal and stone as demolishers took the structure down within hours yesterday. They salvaged a stained-glass window that the Magnolia Historical Society is hoping to receive, as well as the cornerstone. Before the chapel was demolished, four short pews were left out for parishioners to take, and the other stained glass windows were removed and installed in another church. According to the archdiocese's statement, all religious artifacts have been removed and properly stored. While St. Joseph parishioners have scattered to other churches since January 2005, when the chapel was folded into Holy Family Parish, those with long memories of the building could hardly bear to watch it go yesterday. Former parishioners remembered occasions from baptisms to funerals in which they and, in some cases, generations of their families had participated. "I drove by, but it was too sad," said Alfreda O'Hara, who joined the chapel in 1959. She was part of its Women's Guild, which cleaned and maintained the chapel, and her four children received many of their sacraments there, including two marriages. The chapel was built in 1911 to serve the needs of Magnolia residents, who had been attending Mass in the Magnolia Library during the summer. Builders Edward and Dennis Ballau collected stones from the neighbors' properties. Those stones, piled up after demolition, were sold to a Magnolia native, said longtime parishioner Lisa Ramos. The archdiocese put the chapel up for sale in February 2005, planning to solicit offers for at least 90 days before making recommendations to church leaders. Many other churches that closed during the reorganization plan have been sold to other religious groups or converted into homes. Two Gloucester parishes — St. Peter in East Gloucester and Sacred Heart in Lanesville — were merged into Holy Family Parish along with the Magnolia chapel. Their churches were converted into residences — a single-family home at Sacred Heart, which the archdiocese sold for $640,000, and a two-condominium unit inside the shell of St. Peter on Sayward Street. St. Joseph has not been sold yet, and the memo from the archdiocese said that long-standing structural concerns with the chapel coupled with the lack of a sewer system in Magnolia led to the demolition. According to assessment records, the property considered the chapel was actually three separate plots of land that add up to about 11/4 acres. Most of the land is unbuildable; the chapel stood on a buildable lot of a third of an acre. State guidelines for the assessment of unbuildable land led to a sharp drop in the value of two of the plots, from a total of $97,900 last year to $35,200. The land where the chapel once stood is valued at $225,700. The archdiocese's statement implies that the land would have a better chance of being sold as a plot on which an owner could build, rather than converting the chapel. Officials from the archdiocese did not return calls for comment yesterday. The archdiocese lists 30 church buildings that have been sold during its reconfiguration, with another six, including St. Joseph, still on the auction block. According to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Web site, the 2004 reconfiguration plan resulted in 59 parishes and 44 church buildings closing, 11 mergers and the formation of eight new parishes, including Holy Family in Gloucester. Parishioners have scattered among the churches in the area, some attending Holy Family with others choosing Sacred Heart Church in Manchester. "There used to be such camaraderie and we miss it terribly," O'Hara said. "Now, if it weren't for the library, we would never see our neighbors." Standing in front of the demolition site yesterday afternoon, Ramos recounted the baptisms, weddings and funerals she'd attended in the chapel throughout her life. "It's really sad because you can almost close your eyes and just see the community there singing," she said. "There's no place like home. It's a very, very close-knit community."
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