Wadsworth Chapel

Hannibal Lecter: No, he covets. That's his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer.

Clarice Starling:
No. We just...

Hannibal Lecter:
No. Precisely. We begin by coveting what we see every day.

OK. That was the only quote I could think of, offhand, about the desire we can develop when we see something every day which wasn't religiously based. I promise I'm not a whacko serial killer making a girl suit. (I already have one. I was born with it!)

But coveting. Yes! I have very definitely done that, usually in relationship to property. I love coveting properties! Hawaii, Apple Hill, Taos. Doesn't matter! I always see potential in different homes, different lots, different locations. I see beauty in the flawed, the abandoned, the decrepit. I see beauty in what they could be like when restored to full glory, to their fullest purpose, which is what they were, after all, made for.

From the Wadsworth Chapel Restoration Project

I drive by Wadsworth Chapel every day on the way to work. It always draws my eye and my imagination.

As the L.A. Conservancy states:

It is the last remaining example of a neighborhood of Victorian structures officially named the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, founded in 1887 to care for volunteer soldiers of the Civil War and Indian wars.

It has a great history of service to our veterans.

And I want it for my very own. I covet it. I would absolutely love to buy it, move it to a larger and above all, quieter location, restore it, re-consecrate it, and move in!

Yes, I know. Not possible. (I seem to be short several million dollars.) But wouldn't it be a grand place to hang my hat and make some ceramics?

Also, in case of vampires, I'd be living on consecrated ground, right?

It's sad to see an gorgeous old place like this falling prey to weather and termites. In a city where so many historical buildings are falling prey to being torn down and developed into strip malls or torn down and replaced with horrible neo-brutalist, very non-L.A. architecture, seeing a grand old church like this in such a sad state of decay breaks my heart.

But the dream of owning and restoring it will live on...