After a proposed renovation plan for Annie Merner Chapel was made known less than a week ago, an alternative has come forward.
Annie Merner Chapel owner Michael Hayes announced last week that the chapel would be renovated on the interior and the chapel would receive a new name aligning with Twisted Tree Music Hall. Hayes noted on his social media yesterday that an alternative was brought to him.
Eric & Kayla Jokisch of Jacksonville who had recently acquired Henry Pfieffer Library just across Rutledge Lawn on South Clay approached him about purchasing the building. The Jokisches are currently renovating the library to turn it into an event and wedding space. Hayes says that he toured their building and had a discussion about their upcoming vision and decided that their vision would be a better fit for both the library and chapel and decided to sell it to them. The Jokisches were also married in the chapel.
Hayes says his journey with the former MacMurray College campus is now complete after 5 years of being a steward of 5 of the buildings, after purchasing them at the auction that liquidated the campus’ assets.
According to a report in the Journal Courier, the Jokisches intend on keeping the chapel as a wedding space and addressing the seating, which was already in the process of being torn out. The library will be a before and after wedding event space, with places for bridges and grooms to prep prior to their vows and a place to party afterwards. According to the report, approximately 3 weeks of work remain on the library before the Jokisches shift their focus to work on the chapel.
The new event space will be called Chapter II Events.