A Catholic legacy

KINNELON  A short ride on a small boat takes visitors across Lake Kinnelon to a tiny island here where, after 130 years, St. Hubert’s Chapel continues to make its presence known with a tall stone clock tower that rises up above the stands of lush trees that surround it on several sides. Yet its out-of-the-way location inside the Smoke Rise community here has been hiding the little-known but sizable Catholic legacy of tiny St. Hubert’s — the former private chapel of the wealthy Kinney family and the first consecrated Roman Catholic place of worship in Kinnelon in 1889.

After landing at the boat dock, visitors enter St Hubert’s through a door that displays the Latin prayer “Sancte Huberte, Ora Pro Nobis” [“St. Hubert, Pray for Us”] and are drawn in immediately to the history of the chapel. That story starts with Francis Kinney, a wealthy cigarette magnate for whom Kinnelon is named, whose devotion to his wife, Mary, a devout Catholic, and their children inspired him to have the chapel built, even though he was not Catholic. The building also figures into the history of the renowned Louis Comfort Tiffany who designed many items, including the altar, several of its stained glass windows, a tile floor, woodwork, chandelier and the front door — Tiffany’s first liturgical commission, the chapel’s history states.

St. Hubert’s history also spotlights the faithful service by the Franciscan Friars of St. Anthony Parish in Butler, who would take a seven-mile carriage ride to the rural outpost to officiate at Mass and other religious services in the chapel in Smoke Rise, a gated community in Kinnelon and the Kinney’s summer retreat at the time. The dedication of St. Hubert’s took place in 1889, when the borough was still part of the Newark Diocese — predating the establishment of the Paterson Diocese in 1937. The chapel stopped offering Catholic services in 1924. It would not be until 1962, when the first official Catholic Mass would be celebrated again in the then-newly formed mission — now parish — of Our Lady of the Magnificat, St. Hubert’s history states.

“The Kinney commission is considered by Tiffany scholars to be the first fully integrated Tiffany designed ecclesiastical interior and one of only a handful that still remain intact … Many of the design elements that Tiffany employed at St. Hubert’s Chapel can be found in decorative elements that he employed through his 50-year career as a decorated artist. The importance of the Kinney Commission on Tiffany’s career cannot be overstated,” states a booklet available on private tours of the chapel, co-written by Thomas Kline, lead conservator of the St. Hubert’s Chapel Conservation Committee, who also leads some of the tours. He has spearheaded many of the renovations to the chapel, accessible only by boat.

St. Hubert’s came to life spiritually as the summer chapel as a part of the Kinney’s 5,000-acre hunt and fish retreat in Kinnelon on Oct. 25, 1889 when Bishop Winand Wigger of Newark consecrated it under the patronage of St. Hubert, the patron saint of hunters. At the consecration, several priests assisted him, including a few friars from St. Anthony’s in Butler. Bishop Wigger had dedicated the cornerstone in 1886. The Kinneys would send a carriage to bring Franciscan priests from St. Anthony’s in Butler for the ride to Kinnelon, so that Mary would not have to make the long trip. The Kinneys also had an apartment in Manhattan, according to St. Hubert’s history.

The chapel was used for services in the spring and fall, when an interior fireplace provided heat. Although infirm, Mary regularly attended Masses here, which gave her an opportunity to sing. Professor Lambetti, the organist, would bring an opera singer for Saturday rehearsals and a “one-time Sunday duet performance for the appreciative congregation,” according to the Smoke Rise and Kinnelon blog online.

“The local Franciscan priest called weekly to instruct the children in the Christian doctrine leading to their Confirmation,” the Smoke Rise and Kinnelon blog states. Mary Kinney kept logs of the activities of the retreat that report, among other things, a Father Albert and a Father Damien saying Mass there in 1892. Francis Kinney died in 1908, 10 years after Mary, according to the history.

From 1912 to 1919, the Franciscans of St. Anthony’s tried to organize a mission of St. Hubert’s. They had been “experimenting with a summer Mass” there, Msgr. Raymond Kupke, pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Hawthorne and diocesan archivist, writes in his history of the Diocese, “Living Stones.”

“However, the location’s inaccessibility precluded the mission’s development,” Msgr. Kupke writes.

Upon entering St. Hubert’s, visitors notice in the narthex the large Celtic cross and mosaic floor, both designed by Tiffany — part of the later expansion of the chapel. The 35-seat worship space in the church features an ornate altar, also by Tiffany, who designed some of the other stained-glass windows; a wood confessional that doubled as a sacristy; and a large wood screen that had featured likenesses of several saints, including St. Hubert. Francis Kinney sent artists and designers to Europe to learn about architecture of houses of worship in the seventh and eighth centuries when St. Hubert lived, according to the chapel’s history.

After the services at St. Hubert’s stopped, the Franciscans of St. Anthony’s traveled to St. Hubert’s in the 1930s to take the stone out of its altar and recover its sacred vessels. Ownership of St. Hubert’s changed hands, before the 1940s, when the population of Smoke Rise grew. Starting in 1951, residents used the chapel for non-denominational worship services, until they shifted elsewhere in the Smoke Rise community. In 1957, four Smoke Rise teenagers vandalized St. Hubert’s, according to the history.

Today, the Smoke Rise Club owns St. Hubert’s and funds its restoration and conservation efforts, while the St. Hubert’s Chapel Conservation Committee, a part of the Board of Governors of Smoke Rise, manages those projects. Funded by grants and donations, this restoration work has included repair of the bell tower, the stained-glass windows, the front door and the altar, the history states.