Discover the past and present of some of Newtown’s lesser-known historical sites in The Newtown Bee’s series dedicated to retracing the role these places once played in town and what they stand as today.

Formerly: The Hawleyville Chapel

Currently: Journey Yoga & Wellness, the Law Office of Linda E. DeStefano, and Seeking Up Healing & Wellness

Location: 31 Hawleyville Road

When was it built or established? The building was built in 1900, according to the Newtown Tax Assessor’s records. While the structure has undergone renovations in recent years, it still has kept its distinctive chapel-look with gable roofing and cathedral-style windows.

What is its historical significance? “It was a non-denominational private chapel built by the citizens of Hawleyville,” Newtown Historian Dan Cruson told The Newtown Bee.

Protestant ministers would take turns delivering Sunday services in the chapel to help area residents, who had trouble making it into town, have a place to worship.

“It was a long distance riding horse and buggy on roads worse than they are today,” Mr Cruson said. “That was the place to go, because it was close by.”

The chapel was also a popular place to have weddings and funerals.

Mr Cruson says the last service to take place in the Hawleyville Chapel was for a funeral in 1937. It was, however, specially opened in 1982 for a wedding.

An unusual fact about the Hawleyville Chapel — revealed earlier this year in the Newtown Historical Society’s newsletter, The Rooster’s Crow (volume 46, issue 1, from January to March 2019) — is that the building was not always located where it is today at 31 Hawleyville Road.

The structure was previously located on the foundation where the Big Buddha Cigar Lounge now resides, at 27 Hawleyville Road, formerly Upham’s Japanese Tea Garden. The two buildings were physically picked up and switched, with the tea garden then taking the chapel’s spot.

When it was done, the chapel remained facing the same direction, but Upham’s Japanese Tea Garden was rotated 90 degrees. What passersby see today from Hawleyville Road as the front of the Big Buddha Cigar Lounge building was originally its side, and the building’s old porch, to the left, is now a back-deck section.

Mr Cruson said he has not yet been able to determine exactly why someone thought it was necessary to relocate the buildings, but in the entryway of the chapel, there are two historic plaques that shine some light on the move.

On the interior wall to the left of the entrance is a sign with the etching, “This chapel was placed on this site August 15, 1945 and dedicated to the memory of my mother. — W.A. Upham.” To the right, the neighboring plaque reads, “In grateful memory of Alpheus Geer Baker, who faithfully labored for the erection of this chapel 1847-1900,” indicating Mr Baker’s date of birth and death.

The latter sign references A.G. Baker, who also constructed the nearby warehouse at 28 Hawleyville Road in 1877 and used it as his furniture outlet until his death.

There is also photographic evidence of the location change in the form of a glass plate negative from the mid-1920s. The image shows the original location of the two buildings from the view of Route 25 looking south.

Since then, the old Hawleyville Chapel building has gone through periods of vacancy and housed different small businesses, including an office for naturopathic medicine.

Joshua K. Berry, ND, opened the Hawleyville Naturopathic Medical Center in 2002, and it was operational until shortly after his death in 2009.

While the building has exchanged ownership several times in recent years, according to town records, Sound (A Center for Music, Creative Arts, & Mindfulness) opened in the old Hawleyville Chapel building in December 2012. It had a grand opening that month and held a second grand opening the following year.

The business’ owner, Jennifer Aurelia (formerly Zulli) told The Newtown Bee in October 2013 that Sound was created to be “a holistic educational center that fosters the creative and expressive arts with spiritual awareness for conscious evolution.”

She also noted, “We wanted to respect the essence of the antique building while adding a [worldly] and artsy feel to it. Sound’s mission is to hold the space for exploring and connecting to each other and our truest self. The sacred historic chapel has the most healing and magical energy, just by walking into it, people often say they feel like they are home.”

What occupies it today? Brookfield resident Linda DeStefano purchased the building on September 6, 2018, under I Am Journey LLC and had the grand opening for her business, Journey Yoga & Wellness, that November.

Journey Yoga & Wellness offers a mix of gentle yoga and fitness-based yoga, as well as sound healing and gong baths.

Ms DeStefano told The Newtown Bee in November 2018, “I am also an attorney and had a small, solo, home-based law practice — where I specialize in helping people with wills — which is now relocated here to this property. About 20 percent of my time is spent on the legal practice, serving a small number of select clients. The new upstairs yoga studio can hold classes of eight to ten students.”

In addition to her yoga studio occupying the top floor and her law practice on the main level, healer/therapist Aimee Dos Santos’s practice, Seeking Up Healing & Wellness, has been based in the building for the last month.

Ms Dos Santos has a variety of services, including energy healing, clinical therapy, “havening,” pet reiki, and she is an ordained minister.

While the spiritual legacy of the Hawleyville Chapel lives on through the work that Ms DeStefano and Ms Dos Santos provide, its past is also honored by showcasing a piece of its history in the main lobby. A weathered sign, that presumably hung outside the chapel roughly a century ago, reads, “Hawleyville Chapel Services Sunday at 2:30 p.m. and Wednesday 8:00 p.m.”

Interested in learning more about a specific historical place in Newtown? Send suggestions to features reporter Alissa Silber at alissa@thebee.com or call 203-426-3141.