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Wayfarers Chapel

A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1951 (modern architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 16 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1896.

From the record

“Wayfarers Chapel, or "The Glass Church", is a disassembled chapel designed by Lloyd Wright and originally located in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The chapel had unique organic architecture sited on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean.”

Wikipedia article Wayfarers Chapel, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 616 National Register listings published here for Los Angeles County · category: Building · built in 1951, modern architecture, by Lloyd Wright · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • National Historic Landmark. The highest federal designation, held by about 2,600 places in the country against roughly 100,000 Register listings.
  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 structuress, 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 5755 Palos Verdes Dr. S, Rancho Palos Verdes, 90275
  • Category. building
  • Census division. Palos Verdes
  • When was it built? 1951
  • Architectural style. modern architecture
  • Architect. Lloyd Wright
  • National Register reference number. 05000210 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1896 to 1996

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Wayfarers Chapel, surveyed 1996
Topographic sheet covering Wayfarers Chapel, surveyed 1896

Fires near this property

105 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 105 fires within 5 miles of Wayfarers Chapel between 2005 and 2020, burning about 509 acres in total. None started naturally. 4 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined58
Equipment and vehicle use20
Smoking14
Arson/incendiarism4
Power generation/transmission/distribution4
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Debris and open burning2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
8 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
7 September 2011Smoking1.0 acresLos Angeles County Fire Departmentnot named
6 September 2020Power generation/transmission/distribution1.0 acresLos Angeles County Fire Departmentnot named
6 September 2011Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreLos Angeles County Fire Departmentnot named
6 September 2007Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
3 September 2006Misuse of fire by a minor5.0 acresCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
29 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
28 September 2005Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named

Every fire recorded in Los Angeles County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 11 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of Wayfarers Chapel: 9 past producers, 2 occurrences. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Diatomite, Limestone, General, Dolomite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Hilltop QuarryLimestone, General, DolomitePast Producer
Palos Verdes Stone QuarryStonePast Producer
Diatomaceous Earth DepositDiatomiteOccurrence
Diatomaceous Earth QuarryDiatomitePast Producer
DicaliteDiatomiteOccurrence
Chandlers Palos Verdes S&G Co.Sand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Edward Sidebotham and Sons, Inc.Sand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Graham Bros.-Lomita PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Livingston Rock and Gravel Co.Sand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Richard BallSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Los Angeles County

Storms near this property

1 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rancho Palos Verdes, the town this property stands in, in 1 storm report in 2000: 1 funnel cloud. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
March 2000Funnel CloudRancho Palos Verdes-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Los Angeles County

Maps showing this location

16 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 05000210 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Los Angeles CountyAll 616 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.