Truro Conservation Trust saves chapel for community

A historic chapel in North Truro, Massachusetts, has been saved thanks to a land trust-driven effort to preserve its legacy and congregation.

After an intense community fundraising campaign, the Truro Conservation Trust purchased the Chapel on the Pond for $1.54 million, ensuring Pastor David Brown’s largely Jamaican congregation could continue worshiping there.

The former owners of the 1915 Colonial Revival-style chapel had put the property up for sale and asked the congregation to leave. In response, community members rallied, raising $1.7 million. An anonymous donor contributed $1 million, and additional funds came from community events, art shows and online appeals.

Now renamed Pond Village Community Chapel, the building will be leased to Emmanuel Faith Ministries under a five-year agreement. Services will resume, and the building will be available to rent for other community events. The funds raised will also support structural improvements, such as replacing aging windows.

The Truro Conservation Trust owns open space adjacent to the church.

“The chapel property abuts existing conservation land and will add to its conservation value,” said Fred Gaechter, president of Truro Conservation Trust. “We also commit to preserving the building’s historical integrity and value.”

For Brown’s congregation, the chapel represents more than a place of worship — it’s a cultural and spiritual sanctuary.

“There are more Jamaicans here because they can identify their culture in the worshiping, the joy, the clapping, the dancing, but it is open for the community,” Brown told the Provincetown Independent.

This article originally appeared in Saving Land, Spring 2025 (Vol. 44 No. 2).