The Princeton University Chapel is a Collegiate Gothic chapel located on that university's main campus in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. It replaces an older chapel that burned down in 1920. Designed in 1921 by Ralph Adams Cram in his signature style, it was built by the university between 1924 and 1928 at a cost of $2.3 million. The chapel was rededicated in an interfaith ceremony in 2002 following a major two-year restoration.
Its size and design evoke a small cathedral of the English Middle Ages. The only university chapel of its size at the time it was built was King's College Chapel at the University of Cambridge. The foundation is poured concrete, and the superstructure is sandstone and limestone. The main sanctuary consists of a narthex, a gallery, a nave, two transepts joined by a crossing, and an elevated choir.
The chapel's extensive iconography consists of stained glass, stonemasonry, and wood carvings. Among the stained glass are four "great windows", one facing each cardinal direction, and four "Christian epic" windows in the walls of the choir. The iconography was planned by Albert M. Friend, a faculty member in Princeton's Department of Art and Archaeology, with the goal of portraying, in one scholar's words, a "synthesis between Christian faith and modern thought."Milliner, Primus inter pares.
The chapel seats almost 2,000 people. A nondenominational chapel, it hosts weekly ecumenical Christian services and daily Catholic Masses. It also hosts several annual special events, such as baccalaureate services and commencements.
History
Princeton University built the chapel to replace the Marquand Chapel, which stood between where the present chapel and McCosh Hall stand until it burned to the ground in 1920. The location for the new chapel was chosen for two reasons: symbolically, the new chapel would rise from the ashes of the old one, and practically, it would locate the new chapel centrally as the campus expanded eastward.Rhinehart, p. 50.
Ralph Adams Cram, the university's supervising architect, designed and oversaw construction of the new chapel. Cram sought to build a crown jewel for the Collegiate Gothic motif he had championed on the Princeton campus. The university's president, John Grier Hibben, also had a stake in the project: student hostility toward Princeton's brand of mainline Presbyterianism was on the rise. An ordained minister, Hibben hoped the new chapel's majesty would inspire students to attend services of their own volition. Cram, a convert to High Church Episcopalianism from Unitarianism, also lent support to this aim.
Cram designed the chapel with the assistance of Alexander Hoyle, a member of his firm. Albert M. Friend, a faculty member in Princeton's Department of Art and Archaeology, played a central role in planning the iconography. It was built by Matthews Construction Company, which worked on several projects on Princeton's campus. Among those who contributed to the design of stained glass windows were Charles Connick, Henry Lee Willet (of the studio that would become Willet Hauser), and Philadelphia-based stained glass artist Nicola D'Ascenzo.
The plans for the new chapel were made public in 1921. Hibben called replacing the Marquand Chapel "an immediate necessity";Quoted in Bush & Kemeny. nonetheless, the project encountered financial problems early on. The insurance money from the Marquand Chapel was insufficient, and fundraising for the chapel competed with an ongoing general capital campaign for the university. Ground was broken during Princeton's commencement ceremonies in June 1924, and in the following year Cram and Hibben laid the cornerstone. The construction received considerable media attention, as it promised to be the largest university chapel in the United States and the second largest in the world after King's College Chapel, Cambridge. The construction cost about $2.3 million and was completed in 1928. Hibben led the dedication ceremony on May 31 of that year, in an elaborate ceremony covered by TIME.
On March 13, 1960, less than six weeks after the first of the Greensboro sit-ins, Martin Luther King Jr., delivered a sermon at the chapel. In the sermon he called for universal brotherhood and a life of spiritual richness. A plaque on the interior south wall of the chapel's nave commemorates the occasion.
The chapel underwent a two-year, $10 million restoration between 2000 and 2002. Despite the complexity of the work, the chapel remained open throughout the restoration. The project earned a New Jersey Historic Preservation Award in 2002, and the stone work won the 2004 Tucker Award for Renovation and Restoration from Stone World magazine. At the time, two experts working on the stained glass restoration called it the largest such project that had ever been undertaken in the United States; too large for a single studio, it was divided among studios in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York.
Following the restoration, the chapel was rededicated in an interfaith ceremony in which people belonging to Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism gave prayers. Leading the ceremony, then-Dean of Religious Life Thomas Breidenthal said, "This edifice is unmistakably Christian, [but] this chapel is meant to belong to all of us."Quoted in
Description The chapel's Collegiate Gothic design evokes an English church of the Middle Ages,Bush & Kemeny.Stillwell, p. 7. although several aspects of it, including the vault and its supports, recall French churches. The chapel is cruciform and is built on the scale of a large parish church or a small cathedral. The only precedent for a university chapel of this size was King's College Chapel, and only a small part of that chapel was used regularly.Stillwell, pp. 5-7. Stillwell cites Exeter Cathedral and the Octagon tower of Ely Cathedral as precedents for the architectural detail, but notes that the Princeton chapel's detail nonetheless differs significantly from these.Stillwell, p. 9.
The foundation is made of poured concrete. When the chapel was built, the rest of the structure above the grade level was masonry, and the only metal reinforcement was some structural steel in the framing of the roof. During the 2000–2002 restoration, some pinnacles were reset with stainless steel anchors. The arches of the crossing were designed to support the addition of a central tower, but this option has not been exercised: in Bush and Kemeny's words, "Cram felt that Princeton already had enough towers."
Exterior
The chapel is approximately the size of a small medieval English cathedral. Measured on the exterior, it is long, wide at its transepts, and high.Stillwell, p. 11. These dimensions make it about the same size as Ripon Cathedral. The exterior is constructed largely from Pennsylvania sandstone, with Indiana limestone used for the trim.
On the western end of the chapel is the narthex, which has entrances on the north, west, and south walls. An additional door on the chapel's north side opens onto the Hibben Garden, named in recognition of John Grier Hibben's role in the chapel's construction and dedication. The garden of evergreens was designed by H. Russell Butler, Jr.Rhinehart, p. 52. On the chapel's south side are an additional door at ground level to the east and an exterior pulpit, designed after one at Magdalen College, Oxford, and named Bright Pulpit, in honor of John Bright.Stillwell, p. 129. The chapel is connected on its eastern side to Dickinson Hall by the Rothschild arch, symbolizing a connection between religion and scholarship. Cram resigned as Princeton's supervising architect over the inclusion of the arch, which he disliked;Rhinehart, p. 53. nonetheless, he participated in the chapel's 1928 dedication ceremony. Nearby is the Mather Sundial, a replica of the Turnbull Sundial in the courtyard of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. A statue of a pelican, a religious symbol associated with Corpus Christi, sits atop the sundial, which was presented to Princeton in 1907 by William Mather, then the governor of Victoria University of Manchester.
Each of the three narthex entrances sits below a tympanum. The model for the tympanum above the main, west entrance was designed and sculpted in clay by John Angel and carved in stone by Edward Ardolino. Cram shared credit for the chapel's quality with Ardolino in particular, saying his stone carving was "the best of its kind." Ardolino is credited as executing all of the building's stone carving.
The tympanum above the west entrance depicts Jesus as described in the Book of Revelation, together with the four beasts and other relevant iconography. It resembles the tympanum of the Royal Portal of Chartres Cathedral. Beneath the figure of Christ is Princeton University's shield, illustrating the university's motto, Dei sub numine viget ("Under the power of God she flourishes"). The tympana above the north and south entrances depict the Annunciation and the Baptism of Christ, respectively. The latter was sculpted by Robert Baker.
The exterior iconography includes two notable whimsical elements. A downspout on the east wall features a relief of a bulldog head; a decades-old myth relates that Cram placed it there to recognize Yale University, whose mascot is the bulldog. (Cram was not a Yale alumnus and in fact did not attend college, so it is unclear what interest he might have had promoting Yale.) A sculptor who worked on the chapel during its construction placed small carvings of his face and Cram's at the bottoms of crockets flanking the main entrance; Cram is identifiable by his eyeglasses.
The Office of Religious Life calls the chapel the third-largest university chapel in the world. According to Milliner, it also ranks among the tallest in height. In maximum height Princeton's chapel, which does not have a tower or other appendages, is exceeded only by the belltower of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame, the tower of the Duke University Chapel, the tower of the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel, and the campanile of Valparaiso University in Indiana's Chapel of the Resurrection. In height of the nave at the crossing it is second only to King's College Chapel at the University of Cambridge.Milliner, "The Princeton University Chapel", endnote 13.
Interior
Measured in the interior, the chapel is long, wide at its transepts, and high at the crossing. Most of the interior is limestone, but the aisles and the central area of the choir are Aquia Creek sandstone. Sound-absorbing tile is mounted on parts of the wall and vault. Running west to east, the main sanctuary consists of a narthex, a gallery, a nave, two transepts joined by a crossing, and an elevated choir;Stillwell, p. 8. it seats almost 2,000. The building's southeast corner houses a vestry.
Inscribed on the narthex wall facing the nave is "A Prayer for Princeton",Stillwell, p. 12. which as of 2008 was still used in services at the chapel. Another inscription, from Psalm 100, refers to Westminster Choir College, which holds its commencement ceremonies in the chapel. Two staircases on the east and west of the narthex lead to an upper gallery, which looks out upon the nave.