Our Lady Star of the Sea Chapel, St. Marys

This small white chapel on Dillingham Street started life as a bank. The Bank of St. Marys opened here in 1840 and failed after seven years, and in 1847 the building became the town’s Catholic church. It is believed to be the oldest standing masonry bank building in Georgia.

• Built1840, as the Bank of St. Marys
• Became a church1847
• Address106 E. Dillingham St., St. Marys, GA 31558
• Parish office912-882-4718, weareolss.org

From Bank to Chapel

St. Marys’ Catholics had no real place to worship and had been meeting in a room above a store on the waterfront. Many were Acadians from Nova Scotia who had come seeking religious freedom. When the bank failed, Marie Ponce Defour and her husband, Lewis, bought the building for their church, and a bell tower was added. The congregation worshiped here until 1957, when it built a much larger church, Our Lady Star of the Sea, nearby.

Saved by the Chapel Guild

After 1957 the old chapel was neglected, and its unsafe bell tower had to be taken down. Women of Our Lady Star of the Sea parish formed a Chapel Guild to save it. Through rummage sales, raffles, bake sales, donations, weddings and many other fundraisers, they paid an attorney to clear the title to the property, which now belongs to the Diocese of Savannah. The chapel is a contributing building in the St. Marys Historic District on the National Register.

Visiting

The chapel is used for First Friday Mass, Easter services, Stations of the Cross, Christmas Eve, weddings, baptisms and renewals of vows, and it opens for tours. Admission is free. Call the parish office before you go to check when it will be open. It is a short walk from the Cumberland Island ferry dock and the rest of the historic district.

More in town: the St. Marys Historic District, First Presbyterian Church, Oak Grove Cemetery and our St. Marys and Cumberland Island guide.