Visit one or more of these diminutive places of worship during your travels.
By Lowell and Kaye Christie, F47246
March 2009
As we’ve traversed the United States through many years, we’ve found that some of the most memorable places are often the smallest. It’s the same way with churches. Somehow the tiny churches we have visited stick in our memory. We haven’t seen all of those listed in this column, but these 13 are worth a stop, and often a photograph. Many claim to be the smallest, and some may have been so at one time. But like beauty, perhaps size is in the eye of the beholder. Enjoy.
1. Memory Park Christ Chapel, South Newport, Georgia
Built in 1950 and still active, this “Smallest Church in America” measures 10 feet by 15 feet and seats 13 people. You’ll find a small pulpit, a few pews, and a stained-glass window. When local grocer Agnes Harper built the church, she specified Jesus Christ as its owner. Visitors are welcome to enter, relax, and pray any time, day or night. The chapel is located just south of Interstate 95 exit 67, on U.S. 17.
2. Traveler’s Chapel, Nashville, Illinois
Located off the Nashville exit of Interstate 64, this lovely chapel was built to serve weary travelers. It’s a small wooden structure perched on stilts, with a wooden walkway leading to the door. Inside, the walls are covered with Bible verses scrawled on bits of plywood. There are no pews “” just a padded piece of wood to kneel on in front of the floor-to-ceiling cross.
3. Morning Star Chapel, Elk Horn, Iowa
The Morning Star Chapel originally was constructed in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1951 by Danish immigrant Charles Johann Walensky, who passed it on to his daughter, who subsequently passed it on to her nephew, who donated it to the Danish Immigrant Museum, where it was moved to in 1995. You’ll find an altar, a pulpit, and four small pews inside “” all housed in a structure measuring only 6 feet by 8 feet.
4. Geographical Center Chapel, Lebanon, Kansas
In the precise center of the Lower 48 states lies another “smallest” chapel. This tiny, white, wooden chapel is approximately 6 feet by 7 feet in size. Perhaps “precise center” should be considered in the same way we define “smallest.” In 1918 the Coast and Geodetic Survey found the “center” of the country by balancing a cardboard cutout of the United States on a sharp point. When they found the balance point of the cutout, they declared it the geographical center of the U.S.
5. Monte Casino Chapel, Crestview Hills, Kentucky
This tiny place of worship, which is located on the campus of Thomas More College, measures 6 feet by 9 feet, with a ceiling height of 8 feet. More than a century ago, two Benedictine monks built the chapel at a nearby monastery; it wasn’t until the early 20th century that Ripley’s Believe It or Not claimed it to be the “Smallest Church in the World.” When the monks left the area, the chapel was abandoned, vandalized, and finally restored and moved to the college campus in 1965.
6. Madonna Chapel, Bayou Goula, Louisiana
Signs along the River Road proclaim the Madonna Chapel as the “Smallest Church in the World.” It isn’t, but it’s still worth seeing. Sometime back, it, too, was illustrated in Ripley’s Believe It or Not. The chapel was built in 1903 by Anthony Gullo, a poor sugar farmer who prayed to the Virgin Mary for the recovery of his son. The son survived, so the grateful father built this chapel, measuring 8 feet by 8 feet, large enough to hold five chairs.
7. The Wayside Chapel, Atwood, Michigan
Owned by the Christian Reformed Church, this 8-foot-by-12-foot chapel is occasionally used for weddings, but it was intended as a rest stop for travelers. You’ll find it open 24 hours a day on Blue Heaven Lane, on the east side of U.S. 31 south of Atwood, Michigan.
8. Blue Mound Wayside Chapel, Luverne, Minnesota
In the early 1960s, pastor John De Vries and his congregation built a small chapel on a hill north of Luverne on U.S. 75 opposite Blue Mounds State Park. This chapel seats six to eight congregants, plus a minister. A bison herd lives in the nearby state park, and according to one account, a few animals occasionally wander over to take advantage of the shade offered by the small building.
9. Cross Island Chapel, Oneida, New York
This chapel, also touted as the “World’s Smallest Church,” sits on a wooden platform in the middle of a pond. A billboard near the road informs visitors that it was built in 1989, with a floor area of 51 inches by 81 inches. The nondenominational chapel seats only two people. We’ve read of a wedding being held there, even though there was only room in the chapel to accommodate a minister, the bride, and the groom. The rest of the wedding party was afloat in small boats nearby. Guests standing along the shoreline could watch but not hear the vows being said. This chapel is open to the public on request and, naturally, accessible only by boat.
10. St. Martin’s Church, Warrenton, Texas
In a state that prides itself on being big in everything, this tiny house of worship is an exception. The historic St. Martin’s Church is located between the towns of Round Top and Warrenton in central Texas. And with dimensions of 12 feet by 16 feet, it just might be the “World’s Smallest Catholic Church.” The welcome mat is out for visitors, and inside you’ll find everything ready to celebrate Mass, including an altar, a tabernacle, and a notebook to record prayer requests.
11. Evangelische Lutherische Kirche, Elbe, Washington
“The Little Lutheran Church” was built more than a century ago by German settlers. It, too, was classified by Ripley’s Believe It or Not as the “Smallest Church in America,” but it is a bit larger than many on our list, measuring 18 feet by 24 feet and seating a whopping 46 people. Because the chapel lies along the highway travelers use to reach Paradise, a developed area in Mount Rainier National Park, the church is promoted as being “on the road to Paradise.”
12. The Wayside Chapel, Sultan, Washington
“Pause … Rest … and Worship” reads a sign in front of the always-open Wayside Chapel, which contains four small, two-person pews, a pulpit, and two vases of artificial flowers. A painted landscape of distant mountains hangs next to the wooden cross. Visitors can leave handwritten prayers on the yellow legal pad on the pulpit.
13. Our Lady Of The Pines, Horse Shoe Run, West Virginia
his church has long been promoted on signs and postcards as the “Smallest Church in 48 States.” (Obviously these are very old signs and postcards.) The 12-foot-by-24-foot chapel seats 12 people. The grounds provide a lovely setting, complete with flowering bushes and a water-lily pond. Word has it that a bonus attraction is located nearby: the “World’s Smallest Post Office.”