MIDDLEPORT - Worshippers no longer will flock to the former Roman Catholic chapel in this borough, as the Diocese of Allentown sold the building this week.
Matthew T. Kerr, director of the diocese's office of communications, said Wednesday that the diocese sold the former Immaculate Heart of Mary chapel at Washington and Wolf streets to Christopher F. Minchhoff and Robert J. Hinkle Jr., Tamaqua, for $22,500.
"(It) is going to be used as a residence," Kerr said of the former chapel, which shut its doors in 2008 as part of a large-scale closing of churches in the five-county diocese.
John P. Rodgers, Wilkes-Barre, lawyer for Minchhoff and Hinkle, could not be reached for comment on the sale.
The sturdy brick chapel with solid wooden doors remains in good condition, with windows and even the metal hand railings on the front steps still in place. Three evergreen trees remain in front, and snow covers the lawn but not the steps.
The deed was recorded Monday in Pottsville. Under its terms, the state will receive $225, and Middleport and the Saint Clair Area School District will receive $112.50 each in transfer taxes.
Kerr said the chapel, which was built in 1948, did not have its own priest but hosted one service a week.
"It was never a parish," he said. "It was a mission of Sacred Heart Church."
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, New Philapdelphia, itself no longer exists, as it merged in 2008 with Holy Family Roman Catholic Church, New Philadelphia, and St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church, Cumbola, to form Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church, New Philadelphia. That congregation worships at the former Holy Family Roman Catholic Church building.
St. Anthony of Padua's former building on Route 209 has been sold and now houses New Life In Christ Ministries.
Kerr said the diocese has sold about 20 of its former churches.