Our History

The building was constructed 1901 as a Lutheran Church in Friedens till 1969. Later the building was used as a seed warehouse for 30 years. The building was bought in 2001 by Father Alphonse Mascherino who wanted to build a Memorial Chapel as a place of honor to the heroes of September 11, 2001. Between January and August 2002 the building was stripped to bare studs and rafters and the project came to the attention of Maggie Hardy Magerko, owner of 84 Lumber Company. Maggie adopted the Chapel as a charity project and provided the funding for the complete reconstruction of the Chapel. Reconstruction began on August 31, 2002 and the Chapel was completely finished on September 10, ten days later, in time for the first Anniversary and it is known as the first constructed site after 911,2001.  Since then, more than 700,000 thousand people have visited the Chapel, and among them are countless bikers who come to pay tribute to the Heroes of

Flight 93 and to honor the memory of 3,000

innocent people who perished September 11, 2001. 

in 2012 Father Al Masherino went home to the Lord and joined the Heroes. Father handed the Memorial Chapel to the Palestinian Orthodox Church to his Archbishop Melchisdeck. 

 

 CHAPEL AND RELIGION:

The Chapel is a non-denominational chapel, a

place of reflection and prayer.

Groups, tours and buses also come from

many churches, led by their pastors and

conduct services while visiting the Chapel.

There are no permanent displays of religious symbols in the Chapel. The Chapel does not distribute tracts and does not proselytize. Distribution of religious tracts is permitted

under certain pre-arranged conditions with permission of the Archbishop of the Palestinian Greek Orthodox Church of America.