Salvation for a Chapel : Ojai: The city votes to acquire and renovate the landmark structure and parish hall for use by the Chamber of Commerce and a museum.

The old Catholic chapel on Ojai Avenue has cracked walls, peeling paint and broken stained glass windows. Only prayers could save the hollow-walled building from crumbling during a serious earthquake.

Built in 1919, the chapel has served as a quiet and intimate spot for Ojai residents to attend Mass or take communion without traveling to the St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Meiners Oaks, two miles down the road.

But in two years, the parishioners will have to leave Ojai once again for religious services because the Ojai Valley Historical Society and Museum and the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce are moving in.

On Tuesday, the Ojai City Council voted to spend $385,000 to buy the chapel and the adjacent parish hall, built in 1944. City officials plan to spend another $515,000 to restore the buildings in keeping with the Mission architectural style for which downtown Ojai is known. The renovation costs will be financed by selling the buildings that now house the historical society and the chamber.

The council’s decision comes four years after officials of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles approached the city for funds to renovate the chapel. Because of state law and a city ordinance mandating earthquake proofing, the only other option was to demolish the building.

“My perception is that the building is so important to the community that there would be an uproar if the city didn’t find a way to preserve it,” City Manager Andy Belknap said.

Acquiring the chapel has been a pet project for Councilman Steve Olsen, known as an ally of the Historical Preservation Commission.

“For any city, especially a city like Ojai, to maintain its ambience or its feeling, you’ve got to have a couple of key focal points,” Olsen said. “The arcade, the post office tower and the chapel are the landmarks that make Ojai Ojai. It wouldn’t be Ojai without them.”

The Rev. Patrick Keane, pastor of the church for the past three years, said some Ojai residents will undoubtedly miss the small, modest chapel, lined with stained glass windows.

Its loss, Keane said, “will be painful to some people who were married there or baptized there.”

Nevertheless, Keane said, he views the sale as a good thing for both the city and church.

“It permits the parish to go ahead with needed expansion and facilities (in Meiners Oaks) and it preserves for downtown Ojai a building which is definitely one of historic and architectural importance,” he said.

Negotiations were long and tedious before Ojai and the archdiocese finally reached an agreement, city officials said.

“It’s been a painstaking negotiations process, back and forth, but we kept our vision: to restore the chapel and make it part of the city of Ojai,” Olsen said. “That way, we can be sure that it keeps itself as a major part of the historical downtown area.”

Acquisition of the chapel will give the city full ownership of the trio of historic buildings in the downtown area built by Edward Libbey, Frank Mead and Richard Requa.

The Historic Preservation Commission plans to designate the buildings as historic landmarks, a step toward placing the structures on the National Register of Historic Places. This, Belknap said, could make Ojai eligible to receive federal grants for the restoration.

As part of the chapel plan, the city will try to sell the museum’s current home, the former county fire station on Montgomery Avenue, for $310,000, Belknap said.

The city will also try to sell its building on Ojai Avenue, which the Chamber of Commerce rents for $425 a month, for $210,000, Belknap said.

Olsen said that “quite a few interested parties” have inquired about purchasing one of the buildings. Some have suggested converting the fire station into office space, he said, and others have talked about turning the chamber building into a restaurant.

There is one contingency on the sale. Before the purchase is final, tests for contaminated soils must be conducted to make sure that the cleanup cost is not prohibitive. The church and city are sharing the cost of a $10,000 study to see if gasoline has leaked into the ground from an abandoned gas station next door.

“We wouldn’t want to get into something we wouldn’t be able to handle financially,” Belknap said.