Kalimpong chapel set to get facelift, heritage site status

NISHA CHETTRI, SNS, KALIMPONG: The Katherine Graham Memorial Church located beyond Dr Graham's Homes school here will soon be given the heritage site status, thanks to officials of the West Bengal heritage Commission who visited the site and held two rounds of meeting With the Kalimpong district administration regarding this.

The heritage Commission has also released Rs 5,18,37500 to begin with the scaffolding work, layout a plan, make repairs, and renovate the entire structure and the area.

'Two or three meetings have successfully held till date, and the first phase of floating and finalization of the tender will be completed by February, and the first phase of the work has been scheduled to be completed within April this year,"District Magistrate, Dr Vishwanath, said.

The Katherine Graham Memorial Chapel was inaugurated on 24 September 1925 by Lord Lytton, the then Governor of Bengal. Katherine was Dr Graham's wife.

"The Chapel is a haven of peace, a place of worship and a spiritual oasis, where staff,  students and visitors can encounter the Almighty and feel his love and protection over them," said Priyanka Lama, a  former student of Dr Graham's Homes.

However, the chapel developed multiple cracks in the earthquake in 2011, and authorities had to close it for visitors. The church services were also suspended there for renovation, while they resumed in between. However, the Nepal earthquake in 2015 damaged the structure again.

"They used to open the church sometimes for the school's carol service, but after the Nepal earthquake, the carol service also stopped there," a source at Dr Graham's Homes said.

Former students of the school have plenty of emotional attachment with the church, especially those families from abroad whose children of many generations have studied there, and needless to say, they are all elated at the heritage status news.

"I have seen and been there. I have grown up there and I have a lot of emotional attachment. Four generations of my family have studied in the same school and went to the same church,The heritage news is definitely a matter of pride. Maybe, one day, I plan to get married there," said Stefan Francis, who is half Scottish and half-Gurung, and lives in the Cargill Cottage at the Homes.

Asked to comment, Dr Vishwanath said it is a good thing for Kalimpong as the heritage building will start drawing a lot of tourists. "The old building will be repaired and preserved. We have sent a similar proposal for the Gouripur House as well, and the heritage commission has considered this proposal too," he said, He was referring to the now dilapidated house once frequented by poet Rabindranath Tagore in the town.

" A testimony to the lives of love and compassion that both Katherine and Reverend Graham lived, it is a place where their spirit and love can be experienced. Their mortal remains are interred in the cemetery adjoining the Chapel," Ms Lama, meanwhile, said.