Princeton University Chapel: A Tapestry of History, Architecture, and Spiritual Life
Princeton University Chapel stands as a testament to the institution's rich history, architectural grandeur, and evolving spiritual identity. From its humble beginnings in Nassau Hall to its current imposing Collegiate Gothic structure, the Chapel has served as a focal point for religious life, academic tradition, and community gathering.
Early Chapels and the Need for a Grand Structure
At its founding in 1746, Princeton University, originally known as the College of New Jersey, was first located in the parsonage of the Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth, soon afterwards in a sister church in Newark. When the College moved to Princeton in 1756, the chapel was located in what eventually became the Faculty Room in Nassau Hall. This arrangement lasted until 1847, when a separate building was constructed on the site of East Pyne. However, by the end of the Civil War, a new chapel was needed because the number of undergraduates had doubled. Henry Gurdon Marquand, a founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was the principal donor for the Marquand Chapel which was built in 1881. This chapel was destroyed by fire during house party weekend in 1920, and for several years worship services were held in Alexander Hall, the place where Professor Woodrow Wilson had delivered his address “Princeton in the Nation’s Service.”
The fire forced the trustees and president to give immediate attention to the issue of constructing a new chapel which would permit the University to maintain its religious heritage, but in a manner that recognized its public mission in an increasingly multicultural society.
The Vision of Hibben and Cram
University President John Grier Hibben recognized the symbolic value of a chapel on Princeton's campus and issued an appeal for funds to construct a chapel in an architectural style based on the fourteenth century English Gothic. He appointed Ralph Adams Cram of Boston, a leading architect of Gothic revival, and supervising architect of the University at the time and designer of the Graduate College.
Hibben believed that a beautiful building, whose sheer aesthetic grandeur would outweigh any criticism of its expense, would encourage the undergraduates' religiosity. Cram shared Hibben's enthusiasm for beautiful, Gothic architecture, and his conviction that Gothic was the most appropriate style for this structure was related to his own religious beliefs. Cram believed that the coming religious ecumenicism would require a common foundation that art could provide. The conception of the University Chapel, but not its form and dimensions, is found in the collegiate chapels of Oxford and Cambridge.
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Architectural Design and Construction
The University Chapel, completed in 1928 at a cost of $2 million (nearly $35 million in today’s dollars) and designed by Ralph Adams Cram in 1921, reflects the architectural style of medieval English cathedrals. It is Princeton's third chapel, replacing Marquand Chapel that burned to the ground in 1920. The chapel's traditional cruciform plan is oriented along an east-west axis. Its dimensions made it the second largest collegiate chapel in the world at that time. Its total width was 58 feet, its interior length was 270 feet, and the height from the pavement to the crown of the vault was 76 feet.
As built, the University Chapel is considered to come largely from the hand of Alexander Hoyle, a member of Cram's firm who had been educated at Harvard and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. On November 12, 1921, the general plan of the chapel was made public.
The foundations and footings were in concrete, but the upper structure was of solid masonry construction (of Pennsylvania sandstone and Indiana limestone). Ground was broken during the June Commencement in 1924. The cornerstone was laid by Cram and Hibben during a ceremony on June 13, 1925. The construction, done by the Matthews Construction Company, proceeded slowly and the building was finally dedicated on May 31, 1928.
Interior Features and Symbolism
Within the Collegiate Gothic edifice, the theme of fides et ratio - the interdependence of faith and reason in the contemplation of God - is expressed in decorative masonry, woodwork, tapestry and stained glass. Christian iconography is interwoven with elements of academic life and other religions.
Many Princetonians are remembered in the Chapel’s stained-glass windows and in engravings on the pews, on memorial stones on the walls, in the silver communion chalices, memorial hymnals, and on many of the furnishings. John Witherspoon, sixth president of the College and the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence, is pictured in the Great South Window (Christ the Teacher). The figure of James Madison, Witherspoon’s student, is in the Window of the Law, high up in the south clerestory near the entrance of the chapel.
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The oak pews in the nave are made from wood originally intended for Civil War gun carriages. The magnificent pulpit, brought from France, probably dates back to the mid-16th century and had been painted bright red prior to its installation in this chapel. The wood for the pews in the chancel, where the choir and clergy are seated for services, came from Sherwood Forest in England and took 100 people over a year to carve. The statues adorning these pews represent figures in the history of music, scholars, and teachers of the church. In the center of the chancel is the Great East Window (The Love of Christ). The chancel is flanked by six bays of windows, the first two representing two psalms of David, and the remaining windows depicting cycles from four great Christian epics: Dante’s Comedia, Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
The Chapel is also decorated with 25-foot silk paintings by Juanita Y. Kauffman. The Threshold paintings were commissioned for the University's 250th anniversary in 1996, and the Ascent: Blue River paintings were commissioned for and unveiled during the Pentecost of 1999. Its magnificent Mander-Skinner organ - featuring 109 stops and 8,000 pipes - was completely renovated in 1991 by N. P.
A Center for Spiritual and Cultural Life
Today, enhanced by its elegant beauty and charm, the Chapel is the site of frequent weddings and memorial services for alumni, faculty, and many other friends of the University, as well as concerts, services of music, thanksgiving, and penitence. Each year, a Service of Remembrance is held for members of the campus community and alumni lost during the year. The Mander-Skinner organ provides excellent accompaniment for the superb seventy-voice choir, and for concerts and other occasions, including several non-denominational events that the University holds here each year.
In addition to the various denominational services held throughout the week, an ecumenical service is offered by the dean and the associate dean of Religious Life each Sunday at 11:00 am (10:00 am during summer). The deans are also joined by an array of nationally known guest preachers throughout the year and Princeton University students act as chapel deacons, assisting the deans in leading the weekly worship. The service is open not only to the entire Princeton University community but to townspeople and visitors to Princeton as well, who are most-warmly welcomed.
Back when Princeton University Chapel opened its Collegiate Gothic-style doors in 1928, students were required to attend religious services on Sunday mornings. But over the decades, the Chapel has evolved to reflect the diversity of the student body. After a $10 million restoration two decades ago, the building was rededicated in an interfaith ceremony at which Buddhist, Islamic, Jewish, and Christian prayers were offered.
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The Chapel serves cultural as well as religious and academic purposes. Organ and choral music are a focus. University Organist Eric Plutz, the 65-member Chapel Choir, and soloists and ensembles from outside the campus perform throughout the year. The choirs of Westminster Choir College perform “An Evening of Readings and Carols” December 9 and 10, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the event. Princeton University formally opens and closes each academic year with an interfaith service in the Chapel.
A Place of Sanctuary and Remembrance
The building is a kind of oasis in the middle of the campus, meant as a gathering place for students, alumni, and the community. Many people with a Princeton affiliation are memorialized on the walls, in the stained-glass windows, in engravings on the pews, and elsewhere throughout the building.
“It is a long-held custom, at least in Europe, to carve people’s name on walls,” says Boden. “Princetonians have really wanted to remember their dear ones there. It’s a kind of testament to how important their alma mater was to them. Relatives, classmates, and others will do it. A plaque commemorates the sermon delivered in the chapel by Martin Luther King Jr.
“It’s humbling to think of all the weddings, funerals, and students who just come and sit in the back of the Chapel, feeling very small,” says Plutz. “This is a place of sanctuary for everyone.”
The Neo-Gothic Influence
Like the other college buildings, the university chapel was built in the Gothic style, complete with large stained glass windows. The beauty and grandeur, it seems, persuaded the Presbyterians to include such images in a building style not normally associated with low Calvinist worship and stripped-down artistic sensibilities.
The neo-Gothic style began in England as a movement to rejuvenate church architecture, make it more obviously Christian, and linked to the liturgy. As with all authentic liturgical traditions, its style began gradually to influence the broader culture, and soon grand civic buildings, universities, hotels, and railway stations were being erected in styles derived from this kind of church architecture. In the United States, many of the wealthy sought to build in the new style, and attracted the leading architects from England, many of whom trained students to design neo-Gothic buildings. The universities, especially those of the Ivy League, wished to present themselves as the American equivalents of schools like Oxford and Cambridge, and for several decades, it became fashionable to build neo-Gothic quadrangles with porter’s lodges, chapels, libraries, and dining halls, in emulation of the old Oxbridge colleges.
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