SANATOGA PA – The former Sanatoga Chapel served for decades as a home for the faithful and a haven for the fervent. Now, as the building needs repair, local residents who once worshiped there as children are doing their best to keep it as solid a structure as they remembered in their youth.

The chapel today is the museum of, and offices for, the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Historical Society. Some of its members will tell you they once attended Sunday School beneath its bell tower and inside its brick walls. Those bricks have come increasingly loose, however, as the mortar that holds them crumbles from age and the elements.

Society members are taking every opportunity to find a few dollars here and there to cover the cost of having the brickwork re-pointed. Last weekend was a prime example, as the society held its semi-annual yard sale Saturday and Sunday (May 1 and 2, 2010) inside and outside the building.

• See a video, above, about the society, the chapel’s exterior restoration, and the weekend sale, or watch it at The Post’s YouTube account.

Proceeds from the two-day event totaled only a few hundred dollars. While that’s nowhere near enough to pay for the thousands of dollars in brick repairs the society has already incurred, Treasurer Barbara Updegrove noted, “every little bit helps.”

The society’s next fund-raiser is scheduled for June 12 (2010), when its annual Strawberry Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the chapel grounds, 2341 E. High St., Pottstown PA. Besides plenty of good things to eat, the day features entertainment by the O’Such Rhythm and Music Trio, and the Pottsgrove High School Show Choir. Several custom cars, provided by Blast From The Past of Sanatoga, also will be on display.

• This event has been added to The Post calendar.

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