Sage Chapel
Encyclopedia
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
on the campus of Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in Ithaca
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
, New York State and serves as the final resting place of the university's founders, Ezra Cornell
Ezra Cornell
Ezra Cornell was an American businessman and education administrator. He was a founder of Western Union and a co-founder of Cornell University...
and Andrew Dickson White
Andrew Dickson White
Andrew Dickson White was a U.S. diplomat, historian, and educator, who was the co-founder of Cornell University.-Family and personal life:...
, and their wives. The building was a gift to the university of Henry William Sage and his wife.
Charles Babcock
Charles Babcock was a United States architect, academic, Episcopal priest and founding member of the American Institute of Architects....
, also a Professor of Architecture at Cornell, opening services were held on June 13, 1875 with Reverend Phillips Brooks
Phillips Brooks
Phillips Brooks was an American clergyman and author, who briefly served as Bishop of Massachusetts in the Episcopal Church during the early 1890s. In the Episcopal liturgical calendar he is remembered on January 23...
of Boston's Trinity Church
Trinity Church, Boston
Trinity Church in the City of Boston, located in the Back Bay of Boston, Massachusetts, is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. The congregation, currently standing at approximately 3,000 households, was founded in 1733. The current rector is The Reverend Anne Bonnyman...
presiding. Further additions in 1898 and 1904 created the apse at the end of the sanctuary as well as space for the mausoleum
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
. The mosaic decoration of the apse was created by J&R Lamb Studios
J&R Lamb Studios
J&R Lamb Studios, America's oldest continuously-run decorative arts company, is famous as a stained glass maker, preceding the studios of both John LaFarge and Louis C. Tiffany..- History :...
of New York; preliminary designs for this work can be found in the Lamb Studio Archive in the Library of Congress. In 1940 another expansion and renovation added more space for a new choir loft and the current pipe organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
, a 3-manual Aeolian-Skinner
Aeolian-Skinner
Æolian-Skinner Organ Company, Inc. — Æolian-Skinner of Boston, Massachusetts was an important American builder of a large number of notable pipe organs from its inception as the Skinner Organ Company in 1901 until its closure in 1972. Key figures were Ernest M. Skinner , Arthur Hudson Marks ,...
with 69 stops
Organ stop
An organ stop is a component of a pipe organ that admits pressurized air to a set of organ pipes. Its name comes from the fact that stops can be used selectively by the organist; some can be "on" , while others can be "off" .The term can also refer...
and an estimated 3858 speaking pipes
Organ pipe
An organ pipe is a sound-producing element of the pipe organ that resonates at a specific pitch when pressurized air is driven through it. Each pipe is tuned to a specific note of the musical scale...
. The building includes Tiffany glass
Tiffany glass
Tiffany glass refers to the many and varied types of glass developed and produced from 1878 to 1933 at the Tiffany Studios, by Louis Comfort Tiffany....
windows and a stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
memorial to three civil rights workers
Mississippi civil rights worker murders
The Mississippi civil rights workers murders involved the lynching of three political activists in Neshoba County, Mississippi on June 21, 1964, during the American Civil Rights Movement....
(one of whom was a Cornell alumnus, Michael Schwerner
Michael Schwerner
Michael Henry Schwerner , was one of three Congress of Racial Equality field workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by the Ku Klux Klan in response to their civil rights work, which included promoting voting registration among Mississippi African Americans...
) murdered during Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi which had historically excluded most blacks from voting...
.
The interior building has a rich and detailed history with many of the artistic renderings representing numerous Christian and educational themes. The olive vine theme on the floor and walls is a symbol of fertility. The double crosses in the ceiling have a blue back ground in which are set gilded sunbursts and stars, while in the centers are found the Greek letters, XP, which began the word Christos, and the Alpha and Omega. The colours also are symbolic; white is for purity, innocence and faith. Black and white together, purity of life and humiliation. Red is for fire, heat and the creative power. Red and black together, purgatory and the realm of Satan. Green is for hope, of victory and immortality. Grey is for mourning and innocence accused. Blue for the firmament, truth and constancy. Gold is the sun and goodness of God. The anchor represents hope and patience. The lamp is piety and wisdom. The lamb and pennant, represents the Redeemer. The cross is for redemption. The interwoven triangles, represents the Trinity. The Lion is for the Tribe of Judah. The open book with a hand pointing to the Beatitudes, is a symbol of the Gospels. The sword and palm is for martyrdom and victory. The chalice is for faith. The flaming heart is of fervent piety and love. The standard, the wreath and the crown represent victory over evil. The sun, stars and crescent moon, are the luminous nebula which emanates from and surrounds the Divine Essence. The burning bush is for the fervor of the martyrs. I.H.S. originally were the first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek, but which in Renaissance time were said to stand for Jesus Hominum Salvator, "Jesus, Saviour of men."
The chapel is located on Ho Plaza, across from Willard Straight Hall
Willard Straight Hall
Willard Straight Hall is the student union building on the central campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. It is located on Campus Road, adjacent to the Ho Plaza and the Gannett Health Center.-History:...
and next to John M. Olin
John M. Olin
John Merrill Olin was an American businessman. He was the son of Franklin W. Olin.-Early life:Born in Alton, Illinois, Olin graduated from Cornell University with a B.Sc. degree in chemistry and as a brother of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity...
Library, the Jennie McGraw bell tower
Cornell Chimes
The Cornell Chimes are located in Jennie McGraw TowerIt is a common misconception that the tower is named after John McGraw rather than Jennie McGraw, and well-intentioned but misinformed readers of this page have occasionally edited it to say that John, rather than Jennie, lent his surname to the...
and Barnes
Alfred Smith Barnes
__notoc__Alfred Smith Barnes was an American publisher and philanthropist. He was known as "the General".-Life and career:...
Hall.
Sage Chapel has hosted many speakers, including Lyman Beecher
Lyman Beecher
Lyman Beecher was a Presbyterian minister, American Temperance Society co-founder and leader, and the father of 13 children, many of whom were noted leaders, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, Edward Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Catharine Beecher, and Thomas...
, John R. Mott (Cornell class of 1888), Mordecai Wyatt Johnson
Mordecai Wyatt Johnson
Mordecai Wyatt Johnson was an American educator. He served as the first black president of Howard University, from 1926 until 1960....
, Harry Emerson Fosdick
Harry Emerson Fosdick
Harry Emerson Fosdick was an American clergyman. He was born in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Colgate University in 1900, and Union Theological Seminary in 1904. While attending Colgate University he joined the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1903 at the...
, Stephen Wise, Martin Luther King, Sr.
Martin Luther King, Sr.
Martin Luther King, Sr., born Michael King was a Baptist missionary, an advocate for equal justice and an early civil rights leader. He was also the father of Martin Luther King, Jr.King, Sr...
, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
, Reinhold Niebuhr
Reinhold Niebuhr
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian and commentator on public affairs. Starting as a leftist minister in the 1920s indebted to theological liberalism, he shifted to the new Neo-Orthodox theology in the 1930s, explaining how the sin of pride created evil in the world...
, Paul Tillich
Paul Tillich
Paul Johannes Tillich was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. Tillich was one of the most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th century...
, Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
, Abraham Heschel, Hans Küng
Hans Küng
Hans Küng is a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and prolific author. Since 1995 he has been President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic . Küng is "a Catholic priest in good standing", but the Vatican has rescinded his authority to teach Catholic theology...
, Harold Kushner
Harold Kushner
Rabbi Harold Samuel Kushner is a prominent American rabbi aligned with the progressive wing of Conservative Judaism, and a popular author.- Education :...
, Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
, Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...
, Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington is a Greek American author and syndicated columnist. She is best known as co-founder of the news website The Huffington Post. A popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, she adopted more liberal political beliefs in the late 1990s...
and Peter Gomes.
Father Robert S. Smith
Father Robert S. Smith
Robert S. Smith , the Robert R. Colbert Sr. '48 Catholic Chaplain and Distinguished Scholar at Cornell University, was a Catholic priest, author, and educator. His interests ranged from philosophy and theology to the ethics of medical care to interfaith dialogue...
(1932 - 2010), Catholic priest, author, and educator, preached regularly at Sage Chapel from 2002 to 2010.
Besides the university founders and chapel benefactors, others interred there include University president Edmund Ezra Day
Edmund Ezra Day
Edmund Ezra Day was a U.S. educator.Day received his undergraduate and master's degrees from Dartmouth College and his doctorate in economics from Harvard. While at Dartmouth, be became a brother of Theta Delta Chi. He went on to serve as the fifth president of Cornell University from 1937 to 1949...
and his wife, former New York Governor Alonzo Cornell, philanthropist Jennie McGraw
Jennie McGraw
Jennie McGraw was born in Dryden, NY in 1840 and died in Ithaca, New York on September 30, 1881. She was the daughter of John McGraw, millionaire philanthropist to Cornell. After her father's death in 1877, McGraw inherited his large fortune...
, her father John McGraw
John McGraw (merchant)
John McGraw was a wealthy New York State lumber merchant, philanthropist, early benefactor and trustee of Cornell University.-Early years:...
and her husband, Willard Fiske
Willard Fiske
Daniel Willard Fiske was an American librarian and scholar, born on November 11, 1831, at Ellisburg, New York.Fiske studied at Cazenovia Seminary and started his collegiate studies at Hamilton College in 1847. He joined the Psi Upsilon but was suspended for a student prank at the end of his...
.
Sage Chapel is a popular choice for couples getting married at Cornell.
Sage Chapel also serves as the home of the Cornell University Glee Club
Cornell University Glee Club
The Cornell University Glee Club is the oldest student organization at Cornell University, having been organized shortly after the first students arrived on campus in 1868. The CUGC is a sixty-member chorus for male voices, with repertoire including classical, folk, 20th century music, and...
and Cornell University Chorus
Cornell University Chorus
Founded in 1921 as the Cornell Women's Glee Club, the Cornell University Chorus tradition of excellence has been formed by high standards of musical achievement and versatility from all corners of the university...
.
