{"id":143523,"date":"2026-01-21T20:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/143523\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T20:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:02:11","slug":"snake-oil-re-opens-historic-north-chapel-in-liberty-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/143523\/","title":{"rendered":"Snake Oil re-opens historic North Chapel in Liberty Station"},"content":{"rendered":"

POINT LOMA \u2013 Liberty Station\u2019s historic\u00a0North Chapel<\/a>, closed since the previous tenant proposed modernizing the building to convert it into a restaurant and event venue, has been reopened and repurposed.<\/p>\n

The World War II-era North Chapel accommodates 320 guests for weddings, services, meetings, or other special occasions. Since 1942, the building has hosted Navy services, weddings, memorials, and numerous other community events.<\/p>\n

The chapel\u00a0was officially reopened last December by Michael Esposito, founder of Snake Oil Venue Co. He is also co-founder and chief executive officer of Snake Oil Cocktail Co<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Esposito took over for the previous tenant, 828 Events, which had proposed altering the historical building to adapt it for possible new uses. That notion drew serious blowback from some preservationists and neighbors, who dismissed the character-altering chapel proposal as being insensitive and inappropriate to the building and its original design and mission.<\/p>\n

Esposito and Tana Lorah, Snake Oil\u2019s chief operating officer, described a lengthy process involved in reconfiguring and updating the non-denominational chapel, which features vaulted ceilings and original wood floors, without altering its essential character or original mission.<\/p>\n

Esposito said he and his team took a measured approach in reassessing, redefining, and rebranding the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a lot of outreach to the stakeholders,\u201d he said. Snake Oil\u2019s\u00a0emphasis on remodeling was on paying respect to the space, which involved keeping the chapel historically significant. \u201cWe refurbished the chapel, bringing a lot of it back to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel the changes we made have brought the chapel back, maybe closer to the way it was originally,\u201d said Lorah. \u201cWe did an incredible amount, 11 months, of due diligence working with the city, community groups, and the Navy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bride Aislin Oakley inside the historic North Chapel. (Photo by Jane\u00a0& Kolya Shukan\/Theshukans.Weddings)<\/p>\n

Lorah said Snake Oil asked stakeholders what they wanted them to do in refurbishing the chapel\u2019s space.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople overwhelmingly told us they wanted historical preservation with the building to remain intact,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cWe agreed that it was time to do adaptive reuse, and decided we\u2019d be extra thoughtful about how we did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of their new vision for the building\u2019s reuse, Esposito said that it included keeping North Chapel non-denominational.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to be able to open it up to all different kinds of celebrations of the most important moments in life, whether that be a Navy commissioning, or a wedding, or a baptism,\u201d he said. \u201cWe took that very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esposito noted that the chapel has sentimental value for a great many people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had people say to me, \u2018My mom and dad got married here, or my grandfather was stationed here,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cSo, we wanted to make sure that we were doing justice to the building and its design, continuing its legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our goals was obviously to bring the chapel back to its natural beauty,\u201d noted Lorah. \u201cWe modernized it by putting in ADA-accessible restrooms, fire alarms, and creating more ways for people to access the building safely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of strikes, stops, and starts involved in making sure we carefully handled every component of this building-improvement project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esposito said remodeling North Chapel took about 14 weeks from the start of construction. \u201cBut pre-construction planning took 1 1\/2 years \u2013 it was not a fast process,\u201d Lorah added. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just so honored to be part of restoring this part of Liberty Station\u2019s history,\u201d Esposito said. \u201cWe\u2019re really thankful for the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"POINT LOMA \u2013 Liberty Station\u2019s historic\u00a0North Chapel, closed since the previous tenant proposed modernizing the building to convert…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[6569,5469,71941,74,76,75,71942,71943],"class_list":{"0":"post-143523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-exclude-homepage","9":"tag-liberty-station","10":"tag-north-chapel","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-san-diego-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego-news","14":"tag-snake-oil","15":"tag-snake-oil-cocktail-co"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}