Valley Forge National Historic Park: Washington Memorial Chapel

Washington Memorial Chapel is stop number 9 on the Encampment tour at Valley Forge National Historic Park. It is an active Episcopal church. At the end of May, 2021, they were holding in person worship services Monday - Thursday at 9am, Wednesdays at noon, Saturdays at 5pm, and Sundays at 8 and 10am. We arrived on Saturday just before 5pm, and if we hadn’t had sleeping kids in the car, would have considered staying for the service.

The Chapel is known for their Carillon, and the free Frank P. Law Summer Concert Series that is happening every Wednesday in July and August at 7:30pm. You can bring blankets and lawn chairs and food and sit outside (in the rain or sun) and enjoy the music. They are bringing in carillonneurs (new word for all us!) from as far away as Illinois and South Carolina and have a parking space reserved for this person, which is where we saw the word for the first time.

If we can make it back there some Wednesday night this summer, we will. This sounds amazing.

The entrance is truly impressive, with beautiful stained glass windows and a modified but recognizable American flag pattern on the ceiling.

There was a sign that the Justice Bell is being refurbished, and the photo of it looks like it would be a sight to see once it is back.

There was a tour group inside, so we had to wait for them to finish to peek inside the sanctuary before the service started. There are a lot of hand carved elements inside and the stained glass windows are again impressive. What a beautiful place to attend services!

After their talk in the sanctuary, the tour group was going to use the outdoor bathrooms before heading back to the cafe to pick up their box lunches. Then they would get on their bus and heading to Washington, D.C. This seems like a pretty common route and the Chapel was very well organized for large groups like this and clearly do this often.

Behind the chapel is the gift shop and cafe. They had a box outside where you could drop off retired flags for proper disposal.

I’ve never seen this before, always seeking out local boy scout troops for help with flag disposal. Such a nice service. Inside they sold food, basic sandwiches and hot dogs, but reasonably priced and they looked appetizing. The boxes were all out for the tour group, so we perused quickly so as to avoid the rush. There was also a small gift shop. I also spotted signs for a used book shop, but it was closed.

Past the gift shop and cafe was a small cemetery.

It’s a beautiful area in general and well worth stopping and looking around. Make sure to go inside the Chapel!