Nestled on the southwest corner of Eucalyptus and Gage roads in the Naval Support Activity Annapolis’s North Severn Village residential community sits a small, rectangular, wood-frame chapel capped by a four-sided steeple. Although no longer used as a house of worship, Building 127NS, as the chapel is currently called, is one of the last vestiges of the installation's Homoja Village.
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| Building 127NS, the Naval Station, Annapolis Chapel, 1964. |
Commissioned as Naval Station Annapolis on May 15, 1947, the installation was placed under the command of the Naval Academy superintendent and included the Naval Air Facility, Naval Small Craft Facility, Naval Barracks, and Navy Exchange and Commissary. To accommodate the station’s increased personnel, over the next six months the Navy erected 160 Quonset huts, nicknamed Homoja Village, in the north section of the installation.
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| The North Severn Neighborhood composed of Wherry housing buildings and Quonset huts, 1954. Building 127NS is marked as #4 at the intersection in the upper-right corner. |
Construction of the new station chapel began along the southwest corner of Homoja Village's Gage Road on Good Friday, March 12, 1948. Construction crews completed work on the chapel within three months, and on June 6, 1948, the Navy Chaplain Corps’ Chief of Chaplains, Rear Admiral William Nathaniel Thomas, officiated the new building’s Protestant dedication service. The dedication program described the new chapel as a “place where men and women may worship, pray and meditate according to the dictates of their individual faiths – regardless of race and creed.”
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Building 127NS, with Quonset huts and the radio towers in the background, under construction, April 1948. |
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| Building 127NS, June 4, 1949 |
In 1950, Wherry housing units that still stand today replaced the Quonset huts of the North Severn Village. On June 2, 2006, an administrative command renamed the installation "Naval Support Activity Annapolis." Much has changed on the north bank of the Severn over the years, but the chapel remains as a reminder of Naval Station Annapolis's Homoja Village.
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| Building 127NS Dedication Program, June 5, 1948. |
Sources:
United States Naval Station, Annapolis Chapel Dedication Program, June 6, 1948. Box 5, Folder 6: Programs, Series 3: Chaplain Office Files, 1928, 1990, Entry 151: Records of the Command Chaplain, 1853-1990, RG 405.
Holloway, James L. Memorandum, "U.S. Naval Station, Annapolis, Maryland; commissioning of," May 13, 1947. Reference File: Buildings and Grounds: Naval Station Commissioning Ceremonies, 1947. References Files, RG 405.
Kelly, Earl. "Naval Station Gets New Name." The Capital (Annapolis, MD), June 4, 2006. Reference File: USNA: Naval Station. Reference Files, RG 405.
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