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The Watch Hill Chapel Society
History and Governance
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On September 1, 1875, the Watch Hill Chapel Society was organized.
The Chapel Society's By-Laws, originally adopted on September 4, 1875, provide: “The object of the Society shall be the erection and maintenance of a Chapel at Watch Hill, and the support of Christian worship therein during the summer months, without any denominational or sectarian distinctions.”
The February 8, 1876 Act of the Rhode Island General Assembly, under which the Chapel Society was incorporated, speaks of establishing a corporation “for religious purposes.”
In 1876, George M. Nash, owner of the Ocean House, located across Bluff Avenue, gave the lot on which the Chapel stands to the newly founded Watch Hill Chapel Society in the Town of Westerly, Rhode Island, and the Chapel was built in the same year.
Mr. Nash's July 20, 1876 deed provides: “Said lot to be for the erection thereupon of a building to be used exclusively for moral & religious purposes …”
Over the more than 130 years since the establishment of the Chapel Society, its Board of Trustees have interpreted its mission to encompass a broad range of service and outreach to the community, including the use of its Chapel as an important community gathering center and providing charitable services to the needy in the greater Westerly, Rhode Island area.
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The Watch Hill Chapel Society is governed by a Board of Trustees, elected by the members of the Society. Officers are elected by the Trustees.
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| copyright Charles R. Estabrooks 2008 |
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Board of Trustees
2011-2012
Edith B. Eglin, President
Susan M. Dush, Vice President
Andrew J. Parsons, Treasurer
Peter E. Ruhlin, Clerk
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Elizabeth W. Bean
Carl A. Contiguglia
Patrick A. Lemp
Thomas D. Lips
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Robert Marvel
Grant G. Simmons III
Walter S. Tomenson, Jr.
Charles S. Whitman III
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Chaplin B. Barnes, President Emeritus
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