Several years ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Gail Roberts who graciously shared with us a bit of the history of the Tinkhamtown Chapel and her family’s connection to this quaint structure. As we near the Christmas of 2024, closing out a year of global turmoil and raw national politics, we thought reflecting on Robert’s interview in this encore release, both refreshing and necessary. Thanks once again to Roberts for the time she spent with us. Here we go…
…driving up to the little white chapel located in the heart of Mattapoisett’s Tinkhamtown neighborhood, one gets a real sense of early life in this historic community. The Tinkhamtown Chapel windows were aglow thanks to kerosene wall lamps, now assisted by muted electric lights.
On December 21, the chapel was opened to the public for the annual Christmas caroling that has been taking place within these sturdy walls for 65 years. The building is lovingly cared for by a devoted committee and supported in part by the generosity of the public.
One of those committee members has generations of Tinkhamtown DNA flowing through her veins, Gail Roberts. Roberts’ grandmother was the locally well-known Minnie Tinkham who for decades coordinated this annual event. “My grandmother played the organ which she had to pump back then, and we had to sing all the verses of every carol too,” said a smiling Roberts. She said that in spite of the organ requiring strong untiring legs her grandmother insisted that each and every verse of each and every carol be fully played. Now-a-days, the pump organ is connected to a vacuum pump that pushes air through the aging machine.
Roberts pointed out that the organ has handles on either side, “so missionaries could carry it through jungles,” she said. Well, maybe not this specific organ but this style of organ that is. Roberts said her parents faithfully attended the annual caroling at the chapel and that she can’t remember a Christmas she was not there too.
Part of the program has always included children. Roberts said that the children are invited up to the tiny stage area at the front of the chapel where they sing songs to the delight of family and friends. Matthew Buckley remembers those moments as terrifying, “I had stage fright,” he chuckled.
Roberts said that historically this community sing-a-long was held on Christmas Eve, but that as the years went by attendance started to decline. The event was moved to the Saturday evening before Christmas Eve and attendance rebounded. On this night some 70 or more participants shared long wooden pews – a near-capacity crowd.
Fondly recalling those bygone days, Buckley and Roberts talked about the white pine trees that had once graced a corner of the chapel each year and that children were given an ornament in remembrance, “I still have one,” she said.
About ten years ago, the chapel was finally electrified, Roberts explained, and that now instead of using the wood-burning stove still ready for duty, they simply turn on the heater, “…it does take a long time to warm up the place compared to the stove.”
The chapel was built in 1889 according to the historic plaque on the outside of the building, but most likely began life even earlier as Robert said it had been a schoolhouse around 1850.
A study completed by the Massachusetts Historical Commission in 1981 noted that Mattapoisett had seven developmental stages as it moved toward the modern era. Those stages were First Contact 1500-1620, Plantation 1620-1675, Colonial 1675-1775, Federalist 1775-1830, Early Industrial 1830-1870, Late Industrial 1870-1915, and Early Modern 1915-1955. With this in mind, that would mean that the chapel was constructed sometime between the early and late industrial period.
After the caroling died down, the assembled ambled next door to the Helping Hands Society building, also known as the Sewing Circle, to enjoy a bite of homemade goodies gracing tables laid out in beautiful holiday décor.
Today, the chapel quietly sits at an intersection where modern live whizzes by equipped with technology those early settlers couldn’t even conceive. It’s rather nice, and one might say necessary, to have a few moments once a year to gather together, put the hurly burly of contemporary life aside and just enjoy the warmth of being part of a community.
The 2024 press release for this event reads: The annual Tinkhamtown Chapel Christmas Sing-along will take place on Saturday, December 21 at 5:00 pm at the Chapel on the corner of Acushnet Road and Tinkham Lane. Join your friends and neighbors as we sing the old favorites under the light of kerosene lamps and accompanied by an antique pump organ. Refreshments will be served in the Sewing Circle Building next door. If anyone would like to perform a solo instrumental or vocal selection, or if you have any questions, please contact Gail Roberts at 508-758-9559 or by emailing peggsmom@gmail.com.
By Marilou Newell