Early Chapel Life

Tasked with preparing a report on the University Chapel in 2008, the architecture firm Quinn Evans found that the historical trail quickly went cold. There was little documentation of the early years of the building, which was completed in 1890.

“For whatever reasons, virtually no written or photographic records appear to exist for this structure,” the authors wrote in the 195-page “University Chapel Historic Structures Report.”

Perhaps that’s because the Chapel belonged to no one in particular. It had no regular clergy, just a series of rotating chaplains. Beginning in 1904, it was managed not by the University, but by the YMCA located across the street at Madison Hall.

The report contains one photo, circa 1889, of the Chapel under construction. The next exterior photo dates from 1911, 22 years later. 

The period postcards shown here help fill the gap. They document, in their own way, some of the early life of the Chapel.

Dating from 1905 and 1906, the postcards are held at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. They depict pastoral scenes that wouldn’t look out of place in the English countryside, which was the idea, after all. The Chapel’s design was inspired by the Gothic parish churches of England, the report says.

In two of the postcards, the ivy-like vines that covered the building from about 1911 through the 1920s have begun climbing the bell tower. Another shows the Chapel in winter. Though the scene is idyllic, the cold weather took a toll on the structure. The Chapel was just 7 years old when some of the masonry had to be repointed to prevent additional damage from frost. A donor provided $50 to complete the job because the Superintendent of Grounds “did not have so much to expend,” the report notes.