Photo: Aaron Burden / CC0 via Wikimedia Commons (representative small white chapel)
Oldest functional chapel on the island!
Chapel On The Dunes
This chapel was built in 1937-1938 and sits high atop a sand dune overlooking the Gulf. Its hand-painted biblical interior murals — added decades later — make it worth the visit.
Sitting on a sand dune overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, Chapel on the Dunes is the oldest functional consecrated chapel on the island. It was built between 1937 and 1938 by Aline B. Carter who referred to it as the "Chapel of Eternal Light" due to her love of the morning light from the gulf and the sunset light from the bay shining through the windows. After Sunday School every week, Mrs. Carter served ice cream and cake to the Island children who were enchanted by her, her Bible stories, and the delicious desserts which followed. Mrs. Carter used the Chapel for meditation and inspiration for her poetry books. Aline Carter opened “pathways to higher thought” for all who knew her. A teacher of astronomy, a poet, an artist, a woman dedicated to helping those of many faiths, Mrs. Carter had a deep concern for all humanity. The intensity of her faith can be felt by all who enter the Chapel on the Dunes.
The chapel is privately owned and is not a walk-in attraction. You can walk up the dune to see the exterior anytime; the interior — with its biblical murals, painted decades after the chapel was built — is open for free guided tours on the first and third Saturday of each month, or by appointment, arranged through the Port Aransas Museum.