In 1937, a woman named Aline B. Carter — Wellesley graduate, harp student at the Boston Conservatory, astronomy instructor, poet, and the future Poet Laureate of Texas — built a small chapel on top of a sand dune overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. She called it the Chapel of Eternal Light, because the small windows were placed to frame the morning Gulf light from one side and the sunset bay light from the other. She held Sunday school for the island's children and served ice cream and cake. The chapel still stands. The Carter family still owns it. PAPHA gives tours twice a month. It is the oldest functional consecrated church on Mustang Island.
The White Angel
Aline B. Carter was not a typical island resident. She attended Wellesley College, received musical instruction in harp at the Boston Conservatory, and trained at the Eric Pape School of Art in Boston. She was an astronomy instructor, a poet, and a visual artist. She was resident of the historic Maverick Carter House in San Antonio.
She authored two poetry collections: Halo of Love and Doubt Not The Dream. From 1947 to 1949, she served as the Texas Poet Laureate. On Mustang Island, she was known as the "White Angel" for the flowing white organdy dresses she wore while doing community service.
A Chapel Built for Light
Carter commissioned Ethel Wilson Harris to design and build the chapel. Harris was a noted San Antonio artisan associated with the Mission San Jose Pottery and the Works Progress Administration's Arts and Crafts Division. The altar and tile work were based on Carter's own drawings.
The chapel sits atop a sand dune near the intersection of 11th Street and Avenue B, oriented so that its small windows capture the changing light throughout the day. Carter used it for meditation and inspiration. She held Sunday school for island children, serving ice cream and cake — making what may have been the most popular religious education program in the history of Mustang Island.
“She called it the Chapel of Eternal Light, because the windows frame the morning Gulf light from one side and the sunset bay light from the other.”
The Murals and the Legacy
In 1972 — the year Aline Carter died — artist John Patrick Cobb painted Biblical murals on the chapel's whitewashed interior. The Old Testament is depicted on the north wall, the New Testament on the south.
The Carter family retains ownership. Frank Carter, one of Aline's three sons, managed the chapel until his death at age 99 in 2018. The chapel is available for weddings and private ceremonies. PAPHA offers free guided tours on the first and third Saturday of each month, starting at 9:15 AM and lasting 30 to 40 minutes.
There is no other building quite like it on the Texas coast — a sand dune chapel built by a poet laureate, designed by a WPA artisan, painted with murals in the year its founder died, and maintained by the same family for nearly ninety years.