Before the bridge to
Fripp had been built and when plans for the new resort and residential
community were in the initial stages, the Fripp Resort developed a preliminary
layout that had a plot of land designated as a church conference center. While this structure never materialized, the
commitment to a religious presence on Fripp took hold. Bill Turbeville, who built one of the first
vacation homes on Fripp, coordinated in 1967 an Easter sunrise service. Subsequently
A. J. Kilgore, the wife of Jack Kilgore the developer of the resort,
spearheaded the effort to have regular church services. During the summer of 1969, there were weekly
mid-week vesper services at the island’s new inn, now the Beach Club, with ministers
from churches in Beaufort conducting the services. This stimulated a campaign to raise money for
a chapel. Jack Kilgore promised to deed land for a chapel and the Home Owners
Association formed a church committee. However, after this initial experiment
with religious services and after raising a few thousand dollars, there was a
lapse before a resurgence of interest in 1973.
In 1973 the church committee under
the chairmanship of resident Gini Reese discovered that despite previous
promises there was no deed for land on which to build a chapel. The committee thus appealed to the new owners
of the resort, the Fripp Island Development Corporation. One of the first
actions of Stan Smith when he became operating manager of the corporation was to
donate land for the chapel.
The church committee also made
arrangements for vesper services each Wednesday with area ministers presiding.
In 1975 the Home Owner’s Association pledged, “we will never cancel our vesper worship” and decided that there needed
to be a special non-profit, incorporated organization to build and later manage
a chapel. The next year the association endorsed the incorporation of a new
organization, the Fripp Island Community Centre, to spearhead this effort.
At this time the resort provided space
for Wednesday vespers at the Beach Club. Occasionally the service was held in
the bar. Long time resident Lou Cashdollar recalled that on one occasion a Navy
chaplain was presiding at vespers when the lectern was situated with all the
bottles and glasses directly behind him. The chaplain began the service by
saying “I don’t know what my mother in
Ireland would say about my
preaching in a bar room.” During the winter attendance plummeted and once only
two people attended. However, the residents were determined to stand by their
1975 decision for “continuous Wednesday services.” In November 1978 Gini Reese
organized a choir to sing at vespers. There was a consensus that “the Wednesday
evening vespers provide a pleasant, thoughtful and prayerful interlude for
residents and visitors alike.”
While the resort was firm in its
commitment to allow the Beach Club to be used for Wednesday evening vespers,
the use of a room earlier in the week for choir practice depended on
availability. The experience of several weeks with no room for choir practice
galvanized the community’s resolve to have their own place. Besides the need
for a place for vespers, the community had created a plethora of organizations
that needed space to meet.
The big
push for a chapel and community centre came in 1979 when property owners
decided to undertake a building fund campaign co-chaired by Lou Cashdollar and
Ron Yaw. The 250 residents who at this time called
Fripp
Island
home agreed that all denominations and religions should be welcome and decided
on the name “All Faiths Chapel” to express this vision of inclusiveness. Cashdollar contacted non-resident property
owners. Yaw, who daily drove his golf cart about the island, focused on the full
time residents, who contributed the major portion of the money. Neighborhood
captains solicited funds. Many a resident wrote a check for one thousand or
more dollars. They were contributing to a building that they knew would become
the hub of island activities and would help to bind the community together.
These early residents on Fripp envisioned having their own building to hold
religious services, house a library, and host various group activities. Elrose Yaw wrote a poem that captured this
longing:
Let’s build a
special church today
Where island
folks may come to pray.
Not too large
nor yet too small
No fancy
carvings there at all
But quiet peace
you’ll find inside
Where warmth
and fellowship abide.
The building fund drive, which began
in October 1979, had by March 1980 raised almost $50,000, well over half of the
goal. The Fripp Island Community Centre Board, created to build and run the new
facility, decided to begin construction. Following an Easter Sunday service
with a choir of thirty-two people singing the “Hallelujah Chorus,” the
assembled congregation proceeded from Tidal Hall at the Beach Club for almost a
mile down
Tarpon Boulevard
to the building site for an official ground breaking ceremony.
By the fall, the residents reached
their goal of $75,000. Jim Rentz of Coastal Contractors offered to construct
the chapel, at cost. Yet even with this saving, the original plans had to be
trimmed to match the available funds. The board scaled back plans for the
community centre wing and decided not to pave the parking lot. Construction
began on September 15, 1980 and progressed at full speed on a building that
included a chapel, small community room with a kitchen, restrooms, and an
office. As Dick Anderson, one of the key supporters of the undertaking,
predicted, the first service was held on Thanksgiving in 1980. The pews had not
yet arrived and trim work remained unfinished but that did not dampen the
spirits of the Fripp congregation assembled for praise and thanksgiving.
The chapel blended into the wooded
setting and exemplified a heightened sense of the cohesion of community.
Working with a limited budget, the residents managed with voluntary
contributions to equip and furnish the chapel and facility. Captain John
Zoller, a chaplain at Parris Island and later the assistant pastor at
Beaufort’s Carteret Methodist Church, had several years earlier secured for
Fripp the cross, candle holders, and hymnals that were being phased out on the
base. The owners of a
Columbia
music store, Nick and Jane Peck, donated an organ. Harold Olsen, a retired
window designer from a large department store in
West Virginia, built the communion table and
lectern. Jim Chapman, a retiree from
Long Island,
designed a stained glass window free of religious symbols and thus in keeping
with the ecumenical spirit of All Faiths Chapel. Visiting ministers were duly
impressed with the new facility and several wryly noted it was the first time
they had preached in a building with no mortgage. Members of the Community
Centre Board, who had initiated the building program, said that what had been
accomplished “formed a foundation, upon which could rest limitless
possibilities.”
The
Fripp Island Community Centre did indeed play a key role in caring for the
spirit of the island by offering opportunities for worship, play, and
education. In fact, the centre was so
successful that it soon needed to expand to meet the needs for the community.
In 1990 property owners undertook a major expansion of the ten-year-old centre,
the residents’ central gathering place. The board of the centre was optimistic
about raising needed money because a survey revealed strong support for the
project and attendance at chapel was high. There was widespread agreement that
while the chapel had adequate space, the kitchen and meeting rooms were too small.
A fund-raising letter, with follow-up telephone calls, secured pledges for the
required $130,000 to build a 30-by-50-foot addition. Construction began in
January 1991.
The following year the Community
Centre built a columbarium. Following extensive research and numerous meetings,
the centre’s board determined that because of the increased use of cremation a
memorial garden and columbarium would be a meaningful addition. The board voted
$30,000 to build the facility. In a tranquil natural setting on the south side
of the chapel, the columbarium has an attractive brick wall that encloses an
area designed to eventually have 512 niches for holding urns with the ashes of
deceased persons for whom Fripp was a special place. The Fripp Island Garden Club
assisted with the landscaping. On May 12, 1993 as part of the regular Wednesday
night vesper service, the Fripp community gathered to dedicate the new memorial
park. A month later 81of the first 96 niches had been reserved.
The centre continued to be at the
core of the island’s shared life as established activities grew and new ones
were added. One of the first uses of the new space was for the 1991 white
elephant sale, now called a Treasure Sale, a traditional Community Centre
fund-raiser held in conjunction with the July 4th festivities. The
sale raised $6,500 that was used to furnish the new addition. The expanded
space soon became the venue for even bigger and better community-wide
covered-dish dinners, wedding receptions, and numerous private parties. Friends
of Music, which now had a venue for wine and cheese receptions following their
concerts, contributed to the community centre a fine, new $17,000 concert grand
piano, which they dedicated to Gini Reese, a founding member of both the chapel
choir and Friends of Music. The long-established yoga group had room to grow
and became so popular that by 1996 leader Mary Delle Thomas had to request that
interested persons put their names on a waiting list. The Fripp Island Women’s
Club, founded in the 1970s, met regularly at the centre for educational
programs and socializing.
More than ever in its history, the hub
of island life rested at the community centre where in 2006 there was once
again talk of the need to expand the building. Turnout for Wednesday night
vespers, which had begun on a regular basis in 1975, was reaching new highs.
The dynamic 25-voice choir enhanced vesper services and in February 2006 gave a
special concert for an overflowing and enthusiastic audience. On Easter Sunday
in 2006, all parts of the Fripp community jointed together to plan and
publicize a sunrise service. Since the
chapel had been in recent years unable to accommodate the crowd, the resort
made the large ocean front tent available. The community centre planned the
service and the FIPOA helped to alert people of the time and place. Resident
Jerry Hammet, a retired Presbyterian minister, preached. The chapel choir sang and the sun rose
gloriously over the ocean midway through the service with over four hundred
people present.
In 2007 the Board of the community
centre adopted new bylaws that recognized the growth of the organization and
provided a more efficient mode of operation. A building fund campaign titled “Because We Care,” raised $350,000 for
the expansion of the centre and the renovation of the worship space and the
community room. The chapel choir again
gave a special concert, this time as a fundraiser for the building fund. And the new tradition of a sunrise service at
the tent on Easter was repeated in 2007 to an overflowing crowd.
The
Community Centre broke ground in 2007 for the new addition. On May 25, 2008
with the completion of the building and remodeling, the community filled the
expanded facility for the dedication service of the lovely and bigger chapel, a
most attractive and much larger fellowship hall, and a library that almost
doubled in size. Due to a most successful Treasure Sale in July, the Board voted
to also remodel the kitchen. This was accomplished by dedicated volunteers.
On November 24, 2010, the Fripp Island
Community Centre celebrated its 30th anniversary. There was reminiscing about the early days, stirring
music, appreciation expressed to all the volunteers over the years that helped
to make the Centre the hub of Fripp life, and thanksgiving for this special
community.
