[MR] Wikipedia: Joan of Arc Chapel

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today's "Featured Picture" on the Wikipedia homepage shows the 15th century
St. Joan of Arc Chapel in Milwaukee. This chapel was originally called
"Chapelle
de St. Martin de Seyssuel" and stood near Lyon, France. It is thought to be
where Joan of Arc prayed in 1429. But why is the historic medieval French
church in Wisconsin?

To answer that we must look to the early 20th century fad for super-rich
Americans importing European buildings. A lot of really cool historic
buildings were in ruins (or alternately "in the way of progress") in the
years after World War I ended, with their owners often impoverished. In
some cases these buildings were dismantled and moved to the U.S. to serve
as residences, art galleries, or just follies, sometimes intact, but often
just the "good parts" were scavenged. This gave us San Simeon, the
Cloisters, and the nearby Virginia House and Agecroft Hall in Richmond,
Virginia. The trend was so extreme that it ended up being parodied in the
1935 comedy film THE GHOST GOES WEST, where a bankrupt Scottish laird sells
his castle to an American big-shot. The ghost of the laird's ancestor
reluctantly moves to America along with the disassembled pieces (both parts
played by the wonderful British actor Robert Donat).

O.K. Back to Joan of Arc's chapel. It was sold to American heiress Gertrude
Hill Gavin and rebuilt in 1927 on Long Island next to her French chateau
(also relocated). When the chateau burned, the subsequent owners of the
property donated the Chapel to Marquette University in 1964. The building
was disassembled a second time and rebuilt in Milwaukee, where it remains
today. It is reconsecrated and again used for Catholic religious services.

The Wikipedia article is found at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joan_of_Arc_Chapel .

More can be found at https://www.marquette.edu/st-joan-of-arc-chapel/ . A
general search of "Joan of Arc Chapel" will yield more images of the
historic church, including some featuring costumed re-enactors.

For more on historic medieval and replica buildings in Virginia, please
visit the Mallard Lodge Household web page at
https://mallardlodgehousehold.blogspot.com .

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆