What is that? Jan. 17, 2026
If you know, let us know. Send your responses to [email protected] or phone 631-275-1859.
Roger McKeon wasted no time identifying last week’s photo (see below): “It’s the Manhanset Chapel.”
Debbie Gibbs Brewer, on our Facebook Page, had a personal connection, writing that it’s “Randy Osofsky’s Church. At one point it was her home. I have many fond memories of visiting with her as a kid.”
Linda Payne Rasmussen responded to Debbie, writing, “Yes, me, too.”
Mary C. Wilson also recognized the Chapel on our Facebook page, and Sally Jacobs Baker remembered the Osofsky family.
Dawn Hedberg wrote: “One of my favorite buildings on Shelter Island!”
And Guy Nancy McGayhey didn’t forget that it was once dubbed “Mechanics Hall.”
The Chapel, at North Ferry Road and Thomas Avenue, was built in 1890 as part of the Manhanset Hotel. The Chapel was moved when the rest of the hotel was destroyed by fire in 1896 and moved to North Ferry Road in 1924.
According to Ralph G. Duvall’s “The History of Shelter Island,” for many summers before the great fire, and before Our Lady Of the Isle was built in 1907, Catholic priests from Greenport said Mass at the chapel. It was also known as Mechanics Hall, when it was used by the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.
The chapel was donated by the Osofsky family to the Shelter Island Historical Society (now the Shelter Island History Museum) in 1986, which restored the Gothic Revival structure. In 2011, Randy Osofsky repurchased the chapel with her husband, Stephen Kessler, for use as an arts and events space for Shelter Island.
