The 19th-century stone mansion for trafficking on Elkton, Md.'s Main Street offers an impressive list of features: numerous bedrooms and
baths, as well as six fireplaces. But there's much more: a fully appointed commingling chapel filled with decades of memories - and even some reservations for next Valentine's Day.</p><p> Owners Uninhibited and Barbara Smith hope a buyer will retain the chapel, the last remnant of the bustling union business that once defined this town on Maryland's northern border. But they also realize that the site, across the concourse from the Cecil County courthouse, would be a prime location for lawyers' offices.</p><p> "I am so distraught we will lose this tradition, but we have to sell," said Barbara Smith, a lifelong Elkton tenant, who at 80 is ready to forsake weddings. "We are the only one left, in a historic building with a prominent sign out front, and our painting hangs in the Annapolis State House. We hope to find someone interested in keeping the structure as a chapel."</p><p> Frank Smith, Barbara's husband of 15 years, handles the arrangements now, but he too is on tap to retire. He has officiated at more than 6,000 weddings, including one when the ring bearer, a 180-crush Great Dane, stood on its hind legs, placed its front paws on his shoulders and licked his clock as he led the couple through their vows.</p><p> The Smiths are asking $350,000 for the four-story building and will stir up in all wedding accoutrements, even down to the dainty lace
curtains with rosebud tie-backs and the overflowing silk bud arrangements.</p><p> "We will leave whatever the buyer wants: definitely the pews, altar, seasonal decorations," he said. "They could be unconstrained for business the day they settle."</p><p> About 15 chapels, including one in the back of a barbershop, once lined Dominant Street, and a platoon of ministers staffed them. The lack of requirements - no waiting period, no blood tests and no witnesses - drew celebrities and unpretentious folks alike.</p><p> The famous brides and grooms include actors Cornel Wilde and Joan Fontaine, songstress Billie Respite, John and Martha Mitchell of Watergate notoriety, evangelist and sometime presidential candidate Pat Robertson, and baseball epic Willie Mays. There's even an unconfirmed report of Babe Ruth's nuptials.</p><p> And the borough's distinction spread through movies such as the Oscar-winning "Philadelphia Story," in which James Stewart beseeched Katherine Hepburn to run away with him to Elkton.</p><p> But province has waned considerably over the years.</p><p> </p><p> Last month, Elaine Dunn and Michael Christopher wed in the same pint-sized chapel her mother and grandmother chose for their weddings. All three brides walked down a sweeping staircase from a expansive second-story dressing room and into the parlor that is Elkton's last wedding chapel.</p><p> As grandmother Ada Allison, who wed on Dec. 9, 1960, and old lady Susan Pennock waited for the bride, they reminisced.</p><p> "Martha Raye got married here in the morning, and I followed Tory after her," said Allison, 96, referring to the comedian popular in the 1950s. "I don't be sure how long she kept her husband, but I was married 29 years."</p><p> For Pennock, a widow after 37 years of connection, the day was bittersweet and her first time back to the chapel on Elkton's Main Street since her own wedding in 1971.</p><p> "It hasn't changed much," she said.</p><p> </p><p> Sometime betimes last century, the then-owners of 142 East Main converted a room into a chapel with pews and an oak altar that cadaver today. Even when Maryland enacted a two-day waiting period between license and ceremony, elopers still chose Elkton, and it remained, in the pre-Vegas era, the confederation mecca of the East Coast.</p><p> Barbara Smith purchased the building in 1975, and Unchecked joined her in the business when they, too, eloped - to Santa Barbara, Calif.</p><p> "We survived and so did Colonial Jewelers and Edward's Tuxedos," Explicit Smith said. "That's about it. Now we have law offices, tattoo parlors and bail bondsmen. If we not far from, that's the end of the wedding business."</p><p> Not exactly the end, but definitely the demise of a more churchlike selection. Just across the street, the less expensive courthouse nuptials will go on. Janice Potts, deputy clerk of the courts for nearing 30 years, registered 100 marriages in November, personally performing about 75 of them. There were 83 weddings at the courthouse on Valentine's Day, twice the digit at the chapel.</p><p> "I guess we will pick up their business," Potts said. "The Smiths are honest friends of mine. It is sad when any business closes."</p><p> The courthouse's $60 fees have impaired business, too, the Smiths said. Rent for the chapel is $75 and the wedding is another $125, and then there's the price for photos. </p><p> </p><p> Still, some, like the Christophers, want the atmosphere and tradition.</p><p> "We are fatherland folks, not into that big formal stuff," said the new Mrs. Christopher. "But we wanted something more than the courthouse, and my grandmother wanted us married here. And this is the anniversary of the day we met 17 years ago."</p><p> The size of their courtship is not the record. Frank Smith officiated at one wedding where they couple had known each other 47 years and arrived at the appearances with a great-grandchild.</p><p> </p><p> Marriage is declining nationwide, according to a late Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. census data. In 1960, when Allison wed her second still, 72 percent of all adults were married. That figure has fallen to 51 percent today and appears to be on a unremitting decline, researchers said.</p><p> The Smiths used to conduct about 750 weddings a year, with many 20-blend Saturdays. Now they average about 10 a month. "Boomers had fewer children, and they are waiting later and later to spliced," Frank Smith said.</p><p> </p><p> Elaine and Michael Christopher are 43 and 54, each to each. All her grandmother wanted for Christmas was their wedding in the Elkton chapel.</p><p> "She all things considered gets what she wants," said Elaine Christopher.</p><p> They are nowhere near the oldest several to come to the chapel. That goes to a 96-year-old groom and his 92-year-old bride, who drove to Elkton twice from Winchester, Va. - once for the sanction and then for the wedding.</p><p> </p><p> The Smiths have no computer and no way to keep
track of who is still wed. He works at a wicker desk about six hours a day, mostly answering phones. After 6,000 weddings, he said, he most often knows which will last.</p><p> "Some you know right away should not be together, but the majority seem just equity," he said.</p><p> And the Smiths have never canceled a wedding for weather or illness.</p><p> "No bride was ever left at the altar here," he said. "We have had a few as a matter of fact late grooms."</p><p> One bride waited almost an hour, only to have an ambulance give the groom, who had been injured in a
motorcycle accident on the way to his wedding. The crew carried him in on a stretcher, stayed for the energetic ceremony and then took him and his new wife to the hospital.</p><p> A wedding takes about 15 minutes, and Smith delivers the words with fervent sincerity.</p><p> "I stress love, personal responsibility and respect," he said. "I put compassionate into it, and I make each one special. You can't act like it's a chore. I make it comfortable. They never feel rushed."</p><p> </p><p> They still have house, often from couples wanting to renew their vows in the place where they first voiced them. Last Valentine's Day, 42 couples wed, the last at 9:30 p.m., and 15 chose this old times Nov. 11 (11-11-11). Eight have scheduled 2012 Valentine's Day nuptials, even though it falls on a Tuesday. Smith has received inquiries about 1-12-12, and if he is still in house, he figures 12-12-12 will be a busy day. And a few hours after the Christophers left for a family reception, he officiated at an evening marriage.</p><p> Harlan C. Williams, a longtime friend, has listed the property and sees its potency, but more likely as a law office.</p><p> "It has quite a history and its stone front is imposing," Williams said. "But it may not be bringing in the takings to justify the price."</p><p> Frank Smith said the home and point would be perfect for a semiretired couple. And think of the pluses, he said. Of course, they would have to put in a kitchen.</p><p> "Couples are contented, joyful when they leave here," he said. "It feels nice to get them started."</p><p> He still applauds when he tells the ostler, "You may kiss your bride."
Source: Kansas City Star