|
- Founding - Old
Sem - Name - Women
- First Graduates -
- King Chapel - Physical
Education - May Music Festivals
- OCAAT -
 |
|
King Chapel
|
How many college chapels do you know that have had
cannons in the basement, girls in black stockings and bloomers lifting
dumbbells among the pews AND a spot on the National Register of
Historic Places?
The Victorian Gothic-style King
Chapel, with its 130-foot main tower and locally quarried limestone,
got its cornerstone in June 1876. Then the contractor went bankrupt.
A national financial panic at the time left the project stalled
and the campus deep in debt. Faculty members donated one-fourth
of their salaries to save the college and the chapel. In the meantime,
chapel exercises began in the Day Chapel in 1878. The building was
finally completed in 1882 and the main auditorium, which could seat
1,600 people, was first used on June 22, 1882
The girls with dumbbells had demanded gymnasium space
and were given a section of the lower chapel where they "maintained
health." They moved the pews out of the way for stretching. One
historian from long ago described the scene this way: "Like so many
angels reaching for the western star."
And the cannons? When the college had compulsory
military training, starting in 1873, the school received two cannons
that were left on the lawn next to Old Sem. At night students would
fire the cannons at the Mount Vernon waterworks. They once broke
the windows on Old Sem, at that time a girls dorm. In desperation,
when the chapel was planned, the architect added an armory in the
basement.
|
