Mt. Lebanon Chapel is the spiritual birthplace of St. Andrew’s On-the-Sound and the oldest surviving church structure in New Hanover County. Built in 1835 by Dr. Thomas Henry Wright on his family’s summer property along Wrightsville Sound, the chapel offered St. James parishioners a place to worship during the warmer months. Nestled among pines and bordered by Bradley Creek, the simple frame chapel quickly became a beloved gathering point for families who spent their summers “on the Sound.”

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By the early 1900s, as more year-round residents settled near the water, the chapel evolved into a small but devoted worshiping community. Sunday School classes and regular services—often supported by members of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew—drew families from the growing Seagate and Wrightsville areas. This faithful group would eventually form the congregation that became St. Andrew’s Chapel in 1924 and, later, St. Andrew’s On-the-Sound Episcopal Church.

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While the congregation moved to its new home on Airlie Road in 1924, Mt. Lebanon Chapel remained a treasured historic site. Restored in the 1970s after years of weathering and vandalism, the chapel’s cedar-shake roof, white-painted interior, haint-blue ceiling, and quiet cemetery once again reflected the simple beauty of its earliest days.

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Today, Mt. Lebanon Chapel sits within the woodlands of Airlie Gardens, still welcoming worshippers and visitors into its peaceful embrace. Nearly two centuries after its founding, it continues to be a sacred place where generations have prayed, celebrated, remembered, and met God in the stillness of this historic corner of Wrightsville Sound.

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Learn more about its history from St. James Parish.