Battell Chapel
Encyclopedia
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
was built in 1874-76 as a Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
memorial, with funds donated by Joseph Battell
Joseph Battell
Joseph Battell was a publisher and philanthropist from Middlebury, Vermont. Battell is credited with preserving Vermont forest land including the land for Camel's Hump State Park. Battell edited a newspaper and authored several books, including the "American Morgan Horse Registry"...
(April 17, 1806 - July 8, 1874) and others of his family. The chapel was designed by Russell Sturgis, Jr.
Russell Sturgis
Russell Sturgis was an American architect and art criticof the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870.-Early life and marriage:...
in High Victorian Gothic style of rough brown sandstone. It was the third of Yale's chapels and is the largest on-campus house of worship. The Apse Memorial Windows were designed by the architect Russell Sturgis and installed by Slack, Booth & Co. of Orange, New Jersey in 1876. At the top of the center window appears the name of an early benefactor of Yale University, Elihu Yale.
The chapel was built to provide space for daily chapel, which was mandatory at Yale for students until 1926. Built together with Durfee and Farnam Halls at the corner of College and Elm Streets, the chapel was also part of an ongoing program to build up the perimeter of Old Campus
Old Campus
The Old Campus is a complex of buildings at Yale University on the block at the northwest end of the green in New Haven, Connecticut, consisting of dormitories, classrooms, chapels and offices...
and separate it from the rest of the city.
J. Cleaveland Cady
J Cleaveland Cady was a New York-based architect whose most familiar surviving building is the south range of the American Museum of Natural History on New York's Upper West Side...
. An apse was added in 1947 and dedicated to the undergraduate deacons who died in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The chapel is also the site of other memorials. The interior was restored in 1984 by Herbert S. Newman.
Farnam, Durfee and Battell were among the first Yale buildings to be named for donors rather than function, location, or legislative funding.
Battell Chapel is one of the locations on the Connecticut Freedom Trail, and an exhibition depicting the role that Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School is a professional school at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. preparing students for ordained or lay ministry, or for the academy...
faculty and students played in assisting the Amistad
Amistad (1841)
The Amistad, also known as United States v. Libellants and Claimants of the Schooner Amistad, 40 U.S. 518 , was a United States Supreme Court case resulting from the rebellion of slaves on board the Spanish schooner Amistad in 1839...
Africans is maintained by Yale in the chapel's vestibule.
In the twenty-first century, Battell Chapel is the setting for the Sunday services of the University Church in Yale University, conducted by a Yale Chaplain. The chapel also serves as a concert hall and is the main performance venue for the Greater New Haven Youth Ensembles of Neighborhood Music School: The Greater New Haven Youth Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, and Concert Orchestra as well as the Greater New Haven Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Concert Band.