Florida residents near the St. Johns River got an unusual sight on August 29 when a pretty little church was seen floating serenely along.
That’s right. An entire church was floated down the river to get to its new home after being sold. The building looks like a Victorian cottage with a gothic roofline, gingerbread trim around the eaves, and a sky blue roof against pristine white clapboard. It was most visible at the spot between the Mathews and Hart bridges at about noon as it floated its way to its new home.
So, what is this unusual little church? It’s called Chapel by the Bay, and used to be on Florida’s west coast. The church was a wedding venue and it was designed to float; the original plan was for it to function as a floating wedding church. Later it underwent more than a million dollars’ worth of renovation to turn it into an actual houseboat suitable for living in.
Until now, the church-house-boat has been docked in Palmetto on the wes side of the state. The owners put the building on the market earlier this year for $700,00, but didn’t get any firm bites. After dropping the price multiple times, they unloaded it for just $250,000.
Though the charming building still looks like a church—the steeple is still there—and features intact stained glass windows, most of the religious fixtures have been stripped, and it has been transformed into a living space. There are no more pews, and two bedrooms occupy the space they formerly took up. The 1,800 square feet of living space also features a modern kitchen and a loft accessible by a spiral staircase.
And really, the building wasn’t floating so much as navigating; it has two Cummins diesel boat engines as standard equipment.
The 30-by-60-foot boat is on its way to Palatka in Putnam County. But it will take a total of 20 days and $20,000 to get it from the west side of Florida over to Palatka. An executive recruiter named Mary Costello is the proud new owner, and she’s renamed the building-boat The ArchAngel. Costello says she’ll probably rent out the house boat to paying guests.
