THE ST. ANDREW’S CHAPEL
In 1903 Howard L. Mitten moved to Shippensburg from Hagerstown Md to become the editor and publisher of The Shippensburg Chronicle. Mr. Mitten, a lifelong Episcopalian soon found a small Episcopal mission getting started. The mission needed a place to meet and Howard had a spare office next to the press room of his business. St. Andrew’s Chapel was born.
On April 29, 1904 the Articles of Association were signed formally creating St. Andrew’s mission. On that same day services were held for the first time in the Chapel. It must have been a little strange to worship next to a printing press, stacks of newspaper and cans of ink but as they say it is not where you worship, it’s how you worship. This would have to do for the members of St. Andrew’s for the next four years.
The room was arranged very simply, with a table for an altar covered with a cloth. A cross was placed in the center with candles on each side. Later on the table was replaced with the altar from the Greencastle mission, which was forced to close. An organ for the chapel was donated by a Miss McNalty of Chambersburg. Mr. Mitten was the first organist. The chapel also received a loan of a communion set belonging to the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania.
St. Andrew’s Mission got off to a slow start. Before the chapel, attendance at the Reform Church was less than five families. Once the chapel was opened attendance was usually less than twenty and collections were under a dollar. Over the years these numbers did not increase much until the late thirties.
Between 1904 when the mission was organized and 1906, John Phillips, Howard Mitten and a couple others were drawing up plans of how to build a permanent church building. In late 1905 a plot of ground on the corner of Burd and Prince Streets was purchased. At the time of purchase there was a livery stable there. A sketch was prepared by T J Brererton, a member of Trinity in Chambersburg. The building was described in old papers as 50 feet wide and 100 feet long with a battlement tower rising from the front entrance. It is said that the building was modeled after a Cathedral in England.
Ground breaking took place on June 8,1906 and the construction crew of John Gruver , a stone mason from Mongel, a small village just outside of Shippensburg received the first load of stone. Work has begun!