James Rada, Jr.
The historical chapel at Fort Ritchie sat vacant for over a decade until Angela and Scott Griffin decided it was time to restore and reopen this house of God.
The chapel was originally built in 1942 as Camp Ritchie’s mission in World War II expanded, and it became the home for the Military Intelligence Training Center.
More than 19,600 intelligence troops trained at the camp. This included the famous Ritchie Boys and more than 15,200 servicemen. Coming from more than 70 countries, most of these troops were multi-lingual in order to perform frontlines interrogation, battlefield intelligence, investigation, counter-intelligence, and related work.
So, it shouldn’t be too surprising with so many nationalities represented at the camp that these men came from a variety of religions as well.
“On any given week, it hosted Catholic, Protestant, Hebrew, Greek Orthodox, and Christian Science services; however, most every religion has worshipped in the building at one time,” according to the Ritchie History Museum website.
President Jimmy Carter even visited the chapel in the fall of 1979.
When Fort Ritchie closed, the chapel closed as well.
When the Washington County government took over the site for a time in the early years of this century, church services were held in the chapel for a few years; but, since then, it has been largely vacant.
Then the Griffins discovered the chapel while helping with the local farmer’s market. They had a small congregation meeting out of their home in Myersville, and they saw an opportunity to grow their congregation and restore a piece of Fort Ritchie history.
They reached out to John Krumpotich about using the chapel. He agreed to let them use it rent-free, although the Griffins would need to pay for any updating and improvements.
“He was willing to let us use it rent-free because at no point did he want to try to make money off of a church,” Angela said.
Slowly, they started raising money for the various updates, such as the bathroom and heating system. They fixed cracks in the original stained glass windows and want to restore the wooden floors.
However, the building was largely intact. “Most of the other buildings on the Fort had been vandalized to some extent, but the chapel wasn’t,” Angela said. “It was as if they showed respect that the chapel was a house of God.”
The meetings continue to remain non-denominational. Each Sunday, about 40 people gather for a 10:00 a.m. service to hear a rotating schedule of pastors. They are also trying to get former pastors to return to preach special services, but haven’t had any luck so far.
“We have a couple that comes all the way from Cumberland, and another couple comes from Martinsburg,” Angela said.
The Fort Ritchie Chapel congregation continues holding regular events and some fundraisers to continue the improvements. They also hold monthly open houses to show off the progress to anyone interested in the historic chapel.
Find out more about the restoration of the chapel at ritchiechapel.churchtrac.com. You can also download the chapel’s app at the website.
