HARPSWELL

Since 1916, citizens of Bailey Island and the surrounding island towns have been congregating at a small episcopal chapel by the sea during the summer months. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the All Saints by the Sea chapel, a building that is privately owned by the diocese and tendered by a small committee of townspeople from Bailey Island. Services at the seasonal chapel run from the Fourth of July to Labor Day. Folks who attend services here can expect a rustic island experience, one that harkens back to days of old.

“My husband’s family founded the chapel in 1916,” said Hope Haug, 91, matriarch of the All Saint’s By the Sea committee, referring to her late husband, John Haug, who died in 2009.

The Haug family owned a summer cottage by the sea on Bailey Island, and teamed with other cottage owners to build the chapel on Washington Avenue.

Haug’s aunt through marriage, Amy Katherine Brook, was married at the family cottage in 1908. The wedding brought Civil War hero and former Maine Gov. Joshua Chamberlain up the coast via steamboat, one of the many notable subjects to visit the island throughout the years. This event is said to be what led the community to come together and build the chapel a few years later.

John Haug wrote that his earliest memory of the services at the chapel date back to the mid-1920s. He attended the church through his childhood, but his relationship with the building and the community was interrupted by World War II a decade later.

“John’s parents invited me down to Bailey’s Island from Kittery Point in ‘44, because John was overseas as a submarine tender,” said Haug, who had met John before he left for war.

They continued to write letters to one another until he returned two-and-half years later.

“We married and settled down in Marblehead (Massachusetts), and when John retired we moved into the family cottage (on Bailey Island),” said Haug.

There have been five generations of Haugs in the cottage, each attending the chapel during the summer. Hope and John Haug were both on the committee from the start.

“We have a very active committee,” said Haug. “We’re in charge of the upkeep of the chapel. You can’t beat the location. I always tell people who look out at the ocean that the next piece of land across the water is Spain.”

The original chapel was a square bungalow, but as the congregation increased throughout the 1920s, an additional sanctuary was built. The stained glass window on the original back wall moved to the back of the sanctuary, where it remains today.

“A bridge was built in 1928 from Orr’s Island to Bailey,” said Karin Jackson, a member of the committee, referring to the Cribstone Bridge that connects the two island communities. “But most of the chapel goers still chose to arrive by steamboat. The congregation was widely comprised of people coming by foot until the 1950s, when the road to Brunswick was paved and steamboats went out of service.”

There wasn’t any electricity in the chapel until 2008, when bead board walls were installed on the inside of the building, and there’s still no running water or bathrooms. This hasn’t stopped generations of folks from coming back.

“When you came to Bailey Island back in the day, you came for the summer,” said Haug. “You came for the duration.”

Even with new bridges and paved roads galore, the same can be said for today, for the most part.

“People from all over come to Bailey’s Island,” said Bob Jackson, Karin’s husband and treasurer of the committee. “And they keep coming back.”

The Bishop of Maine will be joining the congregation on Sunday July 31 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of All Saints by the Sea. The public is welcome to attend any of the services. All services begin at 9:30 a.m.

bgoodridge@timesrecord.com