Chapel in Canyon Sold to Growing Church

The Chapel in the Canyon--a familiar but faded landmark on Topanga Canyon Boulevard where tens of thousands of couples have been married over four decades--has been sold to a growing Chatsworth church.

Commitments for previously booked weddings will be kept, but the chapel’s grounds will take on a new character Sunday with the first worship service of Chatsworth Christian Church, the charismatic congregation buying the property for $3.2 million.

The Chapel in the Canyon--really four chapels and two garden settings for weddings--has had a colorful history, including involvement with a string of movie stars, from Roy Rogers and Dale Evans to Jane Russell and Annette Funicello.

One of the complex’s assembly halls is named after Rogers and Evans, the Western film king and queen, who joined the chapel’s congregation around 1962, when they lived on a ranch in the hills west of Chatsworth.

“Roy came every Sunday, Dale directed the adult choir, and their children were very involved in church activities,” said Myra “Dude” White, sister of the founding pastor, the Rev. Lawrence E. White.