Marsh Chapel

Marsh Chapel

Exterior of chapel
Location Boston, Massachusetts
Country United States
Denomination Non-denominational
Architecture
Functional status Active
Architect(s) Ralph Adams Cram
Architectural type Chapel
Style Gothic revival
Groundbreaking 1949
Completed 1950
Clergy
Dean Robert Hill

Marsh Chapel is a building on the campus of Boston University used as the official place of worship of the school, named after former president of BU, Daniel L. Marsh, who was also a Methodist minister.[1] The building is Gothic in style. While Methodism, the university's historical denomination, exerts a great influence on the chapel, it is formally non-denominational. The current dean of Marsh Chapel is Rev. Dr. Robert Hill, an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church.[2]

History

Plans for a riverside chapel at the university were made as early as 1920, when the university purchased the 15-acre (0.061 km2) Charles River Campus and commissioned a master plan from architect Ralph Adams Cram. Originally, the chapel was to be complemented by the Alexander Graham Bell tower, a Gothic Revival administrative structure named for Alexander Graham Bell.[3] The chapel's completion was stalled by the Great Depression and Second World War, after which Ralph Adams Cram was selected as its architect. The building was dedicated in 1950, heralding the end of a period of Collegiate Gothic construction on American campuses.

Good Friday experiment

It was the site where the famed Marsh Chapel Experiment took place. Researchers involved included Harvard professor and later psychedelic guru Timothy Leary.

Influence on Civil Rights Movement

Between 1953 and 1965, African-American theologian Howard Thurman presided the chapel as its dean.[4] Thurman exerted an enormous influence on the work of Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King, Jr., who studied at Boston University.

Other notable figures associated with Marsh Chapel

References

Coordinates: 42°21′03″N 71°06′23″W / 42.3507°N 71.1064°W / 42.3507; -71.1064

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, March 14, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.