In a society constantly building newer and grander things, Todd can be best seen as the exact opposite: a community centered on preservation and restoration.
Todd is a rural town tucked away in the High Country among great patches of green grass and farms with cow and horses and rivers and trees. Hardly any commercial development happens in Todd, which is the way the community wants to keep it.
History is everything to Todd natives, including Helen Barnes-Riley, owner of the Todd Mercantile.
“We live in a throwaway society where we throw away buildings or tear ‘em down and put up ugly things which are now modern,” Barnes-Riley explained.
“And we lose the history and the artisan and just the blood, sweat, and tears that went into it. The community of Todd doesn’t throw things away. We maintain our relationships with people, with places, with traditions, everything.”
Which is exactly the point of Friends of St. Matthew’s Chapel, a non-profit started last year by members of the Todd community to preserve the historic property and ownership of the chapel and fully restore it for community use.
One hundred years ago, St. Matthews was filled every Sunday with songs of praise and prayers of churchgoers that filled the pews and the priest that spoke the words from the Gospel.
The chapel now stands as a historic building that hasn’t been used in over two decades.
The once-white chapel shows its age, with paint peeling along all four sides exposing the grey wood underneath. Two bright red double doors frame the entrance to the building, and a bright blue tarp drapes over the top of the church covering the roof.
The chapel still emanates an inviting rural, small town charm that perfectly sums up Todd. It rests on the side of the NC Highway 194, the main road that leads straight into Todd, and it is not uncommon for tourists and natives of the area to pull over onto the grass lot take a walk around the building, or even peek inside if the doors are open.
For the past 20 years, the community struggled to get the Episcopal diocese to grant the town property access in hopes of restoring it. Fourteen years in, Barnes-Reily arrived at the Mercantile and used her position in the community to encourage even more support from the locals and tourists that came through her door. But it wasn’t until a retired Episcopal priest from Atlanta came to Todd two years ago that the efforts paid off.
Michael Tanner, president of Friends of St. Matthew's Chapel, was visiting Todd with his wife Cozette in 2013 when they met Barnes-Riley. When she told him about the community’s battle for St. Matthew’s, Tanner was happy to help.
Tanner knew people from the diocese and spoke with the current owners of the property, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Boone. Although they’ve tried to keep it serving its original purpose, the rector at St. Luke’s, Cyndi Banks, and the bishop realized there was no need for another Episcopal Church in the area.
“They have tried for a number of years to make one work in this building and it worked for a while, but the end—sometime in the last century, it fizzled out,” Tanner said. “So there was a pretty definite decision that we didn’t need to keep this property for church purposes and the church would be willing to cede title to the community.”
Once they got the OK from the church, the board members advocating for Friends of St Matthew’s Chapel got straight to work.
After countless meetings and months of negotiations, Tanner said they are at the end of the process; they’re just waiting for one more signature on the deed so they can finalize the documents.
“Basically, it’s a gift to Friends of St. Matthew’s, but with the understanding that Friends of St. Matthew's Chapel uses it for the community,” Tanner said. “So we want to preserve it, to restore it to some semblance of its historical state but then to make it useful for the community.”
Many possibilities are being discussed for the various uses of the building, including wedding ceremonies, community classes, concert or country dance venues, art shows, and more.
The Chapel is also in high demand for members of the community, including Patrick Pitzer and Jennifer Shafer. Pitzer and Shafer are board members on the Friends of St. Matthew’s Chapel planning committee, but as soon as they officialize the Chapel documents, St. Matthew’s will be the church where they are getting married.
When Shafer was volunteering last week at the church’s art gallery fundraiser, she met an older woman who said she used to walk to the church every Sunday with her mother.
“When she walked inside, she said it smelled exactly like it did back then,” Shafer recalled. When you look around Todd, you still see and feel it’s history and memories.
Pitzer and Shafer’s wedding is just one small example of the ways in which Todd’s historic places make the core of the town’s values and community life.
“We are laying our roots now, in terms of getting married there and having a place to start our memories,” Shafer said.
Produced for COM4610 at Appalachian State University.