The Coleman Chapel, located at 1901 W. Cumberland Street in West Lebanon Township, is set to become the newest addition to Stone Gables Estatea non-profit wedding and events resort in Elizabethtown.

The property had been listed at $415,000 with Bill and Molly Bering of Bering Real Estate.

“(Stone Gables) reached out because they have a big interest in historic buildings, and this one has been on their radar for a while,” Bill Bering said in an interview with LebTown.

Bering said Stone Gables plans to take the building apart and reassemble it near the Star Barn, a well-known wedding venue on the grounds.

The Star Barn itself actually ended up in Elizabethtown through a similar process. Stone Gables Estate owners David and Tierney Abel acquired the Star Barn, then in Middletown, in 2014 and subsequently began a multi-year process to have the historic 1877 structure relocated to Elizabethtown as part of a redevelopment effort. meticulously engineered, piece by piece.

“As you can imagine, thousands of pieces make up this magnificent structure,” notes a timeline of history at the Stone Gables website. “The labeling and organizing process was critically important when reassembly day began.”

Bering said there is currently no timeframe for dismantling and permits would need to be obtained once a timeline is decided, but relocation and preservation of the structure is the goal and plan ahead. long term ownership.

Although the move will see the historic chapel relocated from Lebanon County, its future in the county was not assured – absent historic district regulations or other preservation restrictions on the property, the parcel could have seen the structure fully erased according to the buyer’s end. be.

The property had been listed by other estate agents before coming to Bering Real Estate, which had the listing for about a year. Bering said other potential buyers are churches considering relocation, though the inability to secure financing ended up thwarting some of those plans.

Once the chapel is moved, the future goal would be to catalog that land and sell it for commercial purposes, Bering said.

“It will be in good hands,” Bering said of the chapel’s future prospects. “He’s basically going to live forever.”

The sale is expected to become official after today’s settlement.

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