Chapel

By ELLEN LYON Staff Writer THURMONT, Md. - For 25 years no one seemed to want the old country church that stood abandoned in a scenic but isolated valley north of here. But now, after 28 years of weekly interdenominational services have drawn people from all over the country - their ranks swelling to a few thousand last Christmas season - there's a dispute in court over just who owns this house of God. "It's unfortunate that it's being litigated. I don't think that the congregation or myself would like to have had it end up this way," said Pastor Jeff Walter, a nondenominational minister who has been conducting services at the chapel at 7 p.m. on Sundays since November 1995.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The annual community POW/MIA Service will be on Armed Services Day at 11 a.m. at the Letterkenny Chapel at Letterkenny Army Depot, Chambersburg. The May 19 service is jointly sponsored by the United Churches of the Chambersburg Area and the Joint Veterans' Council of Chambersburg. The guest speaker will be the Rev. Thomas J. McInnes, a retired chaplain of the Association of Military Chaplains. Col. Swenson, commander of the Letterkenny Army Depot, will participate in the service.

SHARPSBURG adamb@herald-mail.com The last two members of the Tolson Chapel congregation closed the doors of the small, wooden building in Sharpsburg 10 years ago. When Edith Wallace reopened that door five years later, the chapel seemed frozen in time. "We opened the door and the Bible was still open on the table," Wallace said. The red-shingled building on East High Street closed in 1995 as a church. It wasn't until 2000 that Wallace discovered the building.

marlob@herald-mail.com When Willard and Mary Graves first got involved in the Perpetual Adoration Chapel at St. Maria Goretti four years ago, they may not have been expecting miracles but they think they got one nonetheless. "A lady who was writing poetry to Jesus during her visit to the chapel took a picture of the (vessel) that holds the Eucharist and when her film was developed, there were rays of light emanating from it," Willard Graves said. Countless flash pictures have been taken both before and after the "miraculous" 2003 photo and nothing even close has ever shown up, he said.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Mark S. Schweiker will speak Saturday during a ceremony to dedicate a Sept. 11 memorial at Letterkenny Army Depot. The ceremony, which is open to the public, will begin at 3 p.m. adjacent to the Letterkenny Chapel at 2171 Carbaugh Ave. Three steel artifacts recovered from the World Trade Center were fashioned into a sculpture that will serve as a permanent memorial to the thousands who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The sculpture first was unveiled to the public at a memorial service in downtown Chambersburg last September.

Kimberly Ann Lancaster, 46, of Hagerstown, passed away Sunday, April 14, 2013, at the home of her sister-in-law surrounded by her loving family. Born Dec. 9, 1966, in Cleveland, Ohio, she was the daughter of William Victor and Barbara Ann (Yeckley) Valis. Kimberly was a mother and homemaker, and the recipient of many, many true friends. She had worked as a real estate agent in Hagerstown. Kimberly was a member of St. Ann Catholic Church, Hagerstown. In addition to her parents, she also is survived by four children, Mark T. Lancaster, Michael W. Lancaster, Megan V. Lancaster and Molly Ann Lancaster, all of Hagerstown; one brother, Kevin W. Valis and wife, Tara, and their children, Max, Violet and Lily of Cleveland; aunts and uncles, Marlene and Robbie Lieb of Baltimore, and Jackie and Bob Lazorick of Madison, Wis.; first cousins, Jason Lieb, Erin Lieb, Brian Lazorick and Katlyn Lazorick; and her Carrolltown, Pa., aunts, uncles and cousins.

Winebrenner Theological Seminary announced the finalization of a $1.8 million deal to purchase the former Scotland School for Veterans Children on Friday. Settlement of the property between Winebrenner, of Findlay, Ohio, and the state of Pennsylvania's Department of General Services, which manages the property, will take place in late May or early June. Winebrenner Vice President and Director of the Pennsylvania Campus David Newell said not only will the Ohio seminary be opening a satellite campus in Scotland, Pa., but also the school will partner with other groups to utilize the 185-acre campus.

Bardin Warren "Bart" Fraker, 72, of Pensacola, Fla., passed away Thursday, May 2, 2013. A native of Hagerstown, Md., he graduated in 1958 from South Hagerstown High School. Upon his graduation, Bart enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he proudly served as a hospital corpsman. Bart retired as a master chief corpsman after 30 years of service. Following his retirement, Bart took a position with the Industrial Hygiene Department at the Naval Hospital Pensacola, where he served as an industrial hygiene technician for 20 additional years.

Editor's note: The following story about the former Fort Ritchie U.S. Army Base is one in an occasional series of stories about some of the treasures of Washington County's past. CASCADE - What was to become Fort Ritchie U.S. Army base in Cascade started out as the Buena Vista Ice Co., became a National Guard camp and then was taken over by the U.S. Army to train soldiers in military intelligence and psychological warfare during World War II. It wound up its military years as a command center for Site R, a government installation known locally as the Underground Pentagon, built under Raven Rock Mountain in neighboring Pennsylvania.

Mark Phineas Dorsey, 50, of Ranson, W.Va., and formerly of Bunker Hill, W.Va., died Sunday, May 23, 2010, at City Hospital. The family will receive friends today from 7 to 9 p.m. at Brown Funeral Home's South Berkeley Chapel, Inwood, W.Va. The service will be Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. at Paynes Chapel. Burial will be in Paynes Chapel Cemetery.