Untitled - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell University

THE SAGE CHAPEL AND BARNES HALL.
The Sage Chapel. The chapel is situated between Boardman and
Barnes Halls. Its auditorium has a seating capacity of |ight hundred
persons. In the chapel discourses, provided for by the Dean Sage
Preachership Endowment, are delivered by eminent clergymen
selected, in the spirit of the charter, from the various religious de
nominations. By the terms of the charter of the University persons
of any religious denomination or of no religious denomination are
equally eligible to all offices and appointments ; but it is expressly
ordered that "
at no time shall a majority of the Board of Trustees be
' '
of one any religious sect, or of no religious sect.
The Sage Chapel was given to the University in 1873 by the Hon.
Henry W. Sage. In 1884 the University
and the estate of Jennie Mc-
Graw-Fiske joined in erecting, upon the north of The Sage Chapel,
The Memorial Chapel, as a memorial to Ezra Cornell, John Mc-
Graw, and Jennie McGraw-Fiske, whose remains there repose. In
the summer of 1898 the University reconstructed The Sage Chapel
and doubled the seating capacity, which was previously four hundred.
In 1898 also, the University erected at the eastern extremity of The
Sage Chapel a semi-octagonal apse, as a memorial to the original
donor of the Chapel, the late Hon. Henry W. Sage, and as a reposi
tory of his remains and those of his wife, Susan Linn Sage, at whose
suggestion the original gift was made.
The Chapel as reconstructed is still in the Gothic style of architect
ure. It is built of red brick with elaborately carved stone trimmings.
The elevations show two gables at the north side and two at the south,
each gable containing a rose window of ten feet diameter, with stone
tracery. A fifth similar window (wheel) is in the gable of the western
half of the nave, which is all that remains of the original chapel.
The window formerly in the east end of the nave has been placed in
the east wall of the apse. In place of the tower, south transept, and
eastern half of the nave of the original structure stand two parallel
transepts covering a space 64 X 66 feet.
The Memorial Chapel,
constructed in the Gothic style of the
second or decorated period, has exterior walls of red brick with stone
trimmings,
and interior walls of Ohio stone and yellow brick. On
entering the Chapel the eye is at once arrested by the rich memorial
windows constructed by Clayton and Bell, of London. They are de
signed not only to commemorate the connection of Mr. Cornell, Mr.
McGraw, and Mrs. Jennie McGraw-Fiske with this University, but