Fort Ord, California: The Chapel

At Fort Ord, there are several chapels which are carbon-copies of each other, meaning that they are regularly spaced at convenient locations throughout the necropolis and that they are identical in shape and design. Currently the area is being converted to university property, so at least one of the chapels is functioning as an active site. The other buildings, however, are still boarded up, empty and rotting ever-so exquisitely.

The abandoned chapel takes on surrealist meaning in the way it is a living metaphor for the recession of christian power and spiritual importance. The deserted chapel inspires the imagination to dream of a life free of the spiritual self-doubt fostered by the christian religion. Christianity's loss of its social importance is accompanied by a rise in spiritual meaninglessness. Therefore the relationship between importance and impotence is of inverse proportionality. To put it another way, the abandoned religious structure is the poetic embodiment of the fading of organized, western religion.

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A front view of the, uh, building. Notice the overgrown plant-life.

The tree owns the building.

Makes you want to go inside, doesn't it?

This is not the actual building whose interior I photographed, but a more "intact" specimen found at the fort ord necropolis. There are a few chapels there that look exactly like this. This particular one was open, perhaps only to fort ord people.

Apparently I'm not the only person who took an interest in entering the chapel. Having predecesors can be a good thing.

A picturesque place of worship.

The poetics of broken glass.

The first door on the right: the religious coat room?

Leading into the main hallway of prostrated worship.

Computer-enhanced rendering of the main hall. The distance from camera flash unit to the far wall was too far for proper reflection, so having photo-editing software to adjust the brightness/contrast came in handy.

What was left of the front altar.

A broken out door.

Towards the back of the chapel. A blocked path.

A refuse pile of old newspapers.

A stairway in the front of the building, to the left of the front entrance.

The stairway led to this observation balcony.

Looking down from the balcony.

Notice the indentations on the church-light: a wine goblet and grapes. You'd almost thing this was one of those decadent frat houses.

Spiderwebs: priceless.

Roof shot.

Admiring the stairs leading back down to the first floor.

A shot from the ground floor. Those lights are damned intriguing, for some reason, especially with those almost-pagan, Bacchanalian designs.

A light to remember.

A view from the rear of the, uh, building.

Trashed electronics.

Maintenance schedule. Last known service was in 1992? Oh darling, how long has it been?