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===Design and construction===
===Design and construction===
In 1870, the trustees of Rutgers College had decided to build a college chapel when the funds became available to do so.<ref>Demarest, William Henry Steele (Rev.). ''History of Rutgers College: 1776–1924''. (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers College, 1924), 436.</ref>
⚫
The college spent approximately US$65,000 (2013: US$1,249,950)<ref name="SahrOSUInflationCalculation" /> funded largely with Kirkpatrick's 1871 bequest of $61,054.57 (2013: US$1,174,079.38)<ref name="SahrOSUInflationCalculation" />


The chapel was designed by architect [[Henry Janeway Hardenbergh]] (1847–1918), who later went on to design New York City's [[Plaza Hotel]] and the [[Dakota Building]] on [[Central Park]] among other Edwardian period buildings. Hardenbergh was at the beginning of his career. A native of New Brunswick, he was the great-great-grandson of [[List of Rutgers University presidents|Rutgers' first president]], the Rev. [[Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh]] (1735–1790). It was the third of three projects that Hardenbergh designed for the college.
The chapel was designed by architect [[Henry Janeway Hardenbergh]] (1847–1918), who later went on to design New York City's [[Plaza Hotel]] and the [[Dakota Building]] on [[Central Park]] among other Edwardian period buildings. Hardenbergh was at the beginning of his career. A native of New Brunswick, he was the great-great-grandson of [[List of Rutgers University presidents|Rutgers' first president]], the Rev. [[Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh]] (1735–1790). It was the third of three projects that Hardenbergh designed for the college.

⚫
The college spent approximately US$65,000 (2013: US$1,249,950)<ref name="SahrOSUInflationCalculation" /> funded largely with Kirkpatrick's 1871 bequest of $61,054.57 (2013: US$1,174,079.38)<ref name="SahrOSUInflationCalculation" />


Kirkpatrick Chapel was included on the [[New Jersey Register of Historic Places]] on January 29, 1973, and on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] on July 2, 1973.
Kirkpatrick Chapel was included on the [[New Jersey Register of Historic Places]] on January 29, 1973, and on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] on July 2, 1973.

Revision as of 05:31, 4 September 2013

Sophia Astley Kirkpatrick Memorial Chapel
Brownstone Gothic Revival style church building
Kirkpatrick Chapel seen from the northeast
Religion
Affiliationnon-denominational
Year consecrated1873
Statusuniversity chapel
Location
LocationOld Queens Campus
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey
United States
Map
Architecture
Architect(s)Henry Janeway Hardenbergh
StyleGothic Revival
Funded bybequest from Sophia Astley Kirkpatrick
Completed1873
Construction costUS$65,000 (2013: US$1,249,950)[1]
Specifications
Capacity650
Length116 feet (35 m)
Width57.5 feet (18 m)
Height (max)55 feet (17 m)
Materialsbrownstone
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Added to NRHP1973
Website
http://www.kirkpatrickchapel.rutgers.edu/

The Sophia Astley Kirkpatrick Memorial Chapel, known as Kirkpatrick Chapel, is the chapel to Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and located on the university's main campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey in the United States. Kirkpatrick Chapel is among the university's oldest extant buildings, and one of six buildings located on a historic section of the university's College Avenue Campus in New Brunswick known as the Old Queen's Campus. Built in 1873 when Rutgers was a small, private liberal arts college, the chapel was designed by architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh at the beginning of his career. Hardenbergh, a native of New Brunswick, was the great-great-grandson of Rutgers' first president, the Rev. Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh. It was the third of three projects that Hardenbergh designed for the college.

Kirkpatrick Chapel was named in honour of Sophia Astley Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick was the wife of Littleton Kirkpatrick, a local attorney and politician who was a member of the board of trustees of Rutgers College from 1841 until his death in 1859. When Sophia Kirkpatrick died in 1871, Rutgers was named as the residuary legatee of her estate. A bequest of $61,054.57 (2013: US$1,174,079.38)[1] from her estate funded the construction of the chapel. This marked the first time in New Jersey history that an institution became a direct heir to an estate.

The chapel was designed in the High Victorian Gothic Revival style that was popular at the middle of the nineteenth century in the United States. Hardenbergh's design incorporated features common to 14th century German and English Gothic churches. According to the New Jersey Historic Trust, the chapel’s stained glass windows feature "some of the first opalescent and multicolored sheet glass manufactured in America." Four of the chapels windows were created by the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Kirkpatrick Chapel was included on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places on January 29, 1973, and on the National Register of Historic Places on July 2, 1973.

For its first 30 years, the chapel was used as a college library and for holding daily chapel services. Although Rutgers founded as a private college affiliated with the Dutch Reformed faith, today, it is a state university and nonsectarian. The chapel is available to students, alumni, and faculty of all faiths and a variety of services are held throughout the academic term. It is also used for university events including convocation, concerts, alumni and faculty weddings, funerals, and often as the site of lectures by prominent intellectuals and world leaders. Lech Walesa, Ben Stein, and many others, have delivered speeches there.

History

The Kirkpatrick family and Rutgers

File:Kirkpatrick Chapel Rutgers Bruecke Potrait of Sophia Astley Kirkpatrick.jpg
Rutgers built Kirkpatrick Chapel after receiving a $61,054.57 bequest to the college from residual assets of Sophia Astley Kirkpatrick's estate.

When Sophia Astley Kirkpatrick (1802–1871) died on March 6, 1871 at the age of 68, she named Rutgers College as her estate's residuary legatee.[2]: p.44  At that time, Rutgers was a small, private liberal arts college in New Brunswick, New Jersey, affiliated with the Dutch Reformed faith. Founded in 1766 as Queen’s College, Rutgers was one of nine colleges founded in the American colonies before the Revolutionary War. This was the first time in New Jersey legal history that an institution became a direct heir to an estate.

Sophia was the daughter of wealthy merchant and land investor Thomas Astley of Philadelphia.[3] She married Littleton Kirkpatrick (1797–1859) on October 18, 1832.[4]: p.75  Littleton, an attorney and 1815 graduate of Princeton, was a member of a wealthy, prominent New Brunswick family and pursued a career in politics. They did not have children.[4]: p.75 [5]: p.23  Before his death in 1859, Littleton Kirkpatrick was elected as county surrogate, mayor of New Brunswick and served as a Whig Party member of the House of Representatives during the Twenty-Eighth Congress (1843–1845).[4]: p.75 [6] He deserved as a trustee of Rutgers College for 18 years from 1841 until his death.[6][7]: p.16  Sophia remained in New Brunswick after her husband's death. A devoted member of the city's First Presbyterian Church, she was later described as "adorned by her profession by her Christian graces and her many deeds of charity and beneficence to the needy and suffering."[2]: p.44 

Littleton Kirkpatrick was the son of Jane Bayard and Judge Andrew Kirkpatrick who served as Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.[4]: p.75  He was grandson of Philadelphia merchant and stateman Colonel John Bayard (1738–1807) who served as speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, delegate to the Continental Congress, judge, mayor of New Brunswick, and was a Revolutionary War hero.[4]: p.27ff. [8]

The Kirkpatrick family had a long association with Queen's College and subsequently with Rutgers.[9]: p.52  Several members of the family serving as trustees or receiving degrees from the college, including:

  • Littleton's father, Andrew Kirkpatrick (1756–1831), a 1775 graduate of Princeton, taught at the Queen's College Grammar School in 1782, received an honorary Masters (A.M.) from Queen's College in 1783, and served as a trustee 1782 to 1809.[7]: p.12 [9]: pp.35, 52, 68 
  • Littleton's brother, John Bayard Kirkpatrick, Esq. (1795–1864), was an 1815 graduate of Rutgers when it was Queen's College[5]: p.24 .[7]: p.73 [9]: p.52 
  • Littleton's nephew, Andrew Kirkpatrick (1844–1904) studied at Rutgers from 1860 to 1862 before receiving a bachelors degree from Union College in 1863;[7]: p.138 [9]: p.52 
  • Another nephew, John Bayard Kirkpatrick, Jr. (1844–1912), received a bachelors degree in 1866.[7]: p.143  and later served as college trustee (1892–1912).[4]: p.74 [7]: p.21 [9]: p.52 
  • John Bayard Kirkpatrick III (1878–1961) received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1900.[7]: p.239 

Design and construction

In 1870, the trustees of Rutgers College had decided to build a college chapel when the funds became available to do so.[10]

The chapel was designed by architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh (1847–1918), who later went on to design New York City's Plaza Hotel and the Dakota Building on Central Park among other Edwardian period buildings. Hardenbergh was at the beginning of his career. A native of New Brunswick, he was the great-great-grandson of Rutgers' first president, the Rev. Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh (1735–1790). It was the third of three projects that Hardenbergh designed for the college.

The college spent approximately US$65,000 (2013: US$1,249,950)[1] funded largely with Kirkpatrick's 1871 bequest of $61,054.57 (2013: US$1,174,079.38)[1]

Kirkpatrick Chapel was included on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places on January 29, 1973, and on the National Register of Historic Places on July 2, 1973.

Description

Organ

Kirkpatrick Chapel's services have been augmented by the force of large pipe organ regarded as "finest classical examples of the instrument anywhere in the state." In 1916, the daughter of Rutgers alumnus George Buckham, Esq. (A.B. 1832), donated $10,000 to the college in her father's memory.[11]: pp.3–4 [12] Her donation coincided with the observance of Rutgers' 150th anniversary that year.

Built in 1916 as the "Opus 255" by the Ernest M. Skinner & Company of Boston, the organ featured 33 stops, 24 registers, 27 ranks, and 1606 pipes.[13] According to Rutgers, Skinner (1866–1960) who was considered the nation's premier organ-builder in the early twentieth century, gave personal attention to the building of this organ.[12][14] When the purchase of the organ was being considered in 1916, Rutgers' director of music, Howard D. McKinney (RC 1903), sought the advise of English organist T. Tertius Noble who had been installed as the organist and music director at Saint Thomas Church (Episcopal) on Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street in New York City.[12] When it was dedicated on 12 April 1917, Noble performed an organ recital.[12] During these years, Skinner built organs that were installed in several churches across the United States, including the chapels at Harvard University, Lafayette College, Oberlin College, for Saint Thomas Church and several for the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City.[15] Chimes were added and some repair work on reeds was completed in 1931, and releathering in 1957.[16]

From 1958 to 1961, the organ was updated and rebuilt by the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company, the successor to Ernest M. Skinner's company. University organist David A. Drinkwater oversaw the work of as the organ expanded to 59 stops, 52 ranks, and 3,059 pipes.[12][14][17] This organ was renamed the "Opus 255-C"

As of 2013, the chapel's organ has "gone silent" after several years of problems and failures and has been temporarily replaced with a state-of-the-art electronic organ. Rutgers has not decided to restore the organ, or replace with a new pipe organ.[14]

Stained glass windows

The Queen's College Charter Window above the chapel's narthex was donated in honour of Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen who was instrumental in founding the college.

Kirkpatrick Chapel features several stained glass windows. Four of the windows were designed and crafted in the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933).[18][19] Tiffany and Hardenbergh were acquainted through their work with the Architectural League of New York.[19] Approximately twenty lancet windows along the chapel's side aisles were donated by graduating classes at the turn of the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries (1890–1912). These windows depict their class year and phrases in Ancient Greek and Latin.[18] According to the New Jersey Historic Trust, the chapel's windows are "some of the first opalescent and multicolored sheet glass manufactured in America." Opalescent glass, used often in Tiffany glass windows, is glass where more than one colour is present and caused in the manufacture by fusing through two colours being laminated, or through a superficial application of Silver nitrate solutions.

The four windows from the Tiffany studios include those donated by the college's Class of 1899 and Class of 1900.[18] A window depicting Joan of Arc donated to in memory of Rutgers College sophomore Henry Janeway Weston (1877–1898) who committed suicide in 1898.[19] According to Rutgers, this window was a gift of the Tiffany studios.[18] Weston, the grandson of Henry Latimer Janeway (1824–1909) a wealthy wallpaper manufacturer, Rutgers alumnus (A.B. 1844, A.M. 1847) and long-serving trustee (1862–1909), killed himself after his family became aware of a romantic relationship with a woman that would have negatively effected his reputation.[19][20][21]

A large arched window over the narthex (or the entrance of the chapel) and a choir loft commemorates the signing of charter creating Queen's College in 1766 by New Jersey's last royal governor, William Franklin.[18][19] According to Star-Ledger columnist Mark DiIonno, the "Charter Window" was donated by Frelinghuysen family to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the signing, and dedicated to their ancestor the Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1692–1747) an early advocate for establishing the college and his sons Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen II (1724–c.1760) and Rev. John Frelinghuysen (1727–1754).[19][22] The large arched window over the chancel behind the altar, titled "Jesus, the Teacher of the Ages" was donated by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh after the renovation of the chapel in 1916 and dedicated to his great-great-grandfather and the college's first president, the Rev. Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh (1735–1790).[19] Rev. Frelinghuysen, his sons, and Rev. Hardenbergh and were instrumental raising funds and political support for establishing the college.[23]

The windows of Kirkpatrick chapel underwent an eleven-year restoration beginning in 2004 with the chapel's clerestory windows under the direction of Michael Padovan, and his studio Jersey Art Stained Glass in Frenchtown, New Jersey.[19]

Portraits and memorial plaques

An alumnus and local attorney, Edward Sullivan Vail (1819–1889), a graduate from the class of 1839, is listed in University publications as "Collector of Portraits for Kirkpatrick Chapel."[7]: p.93  after spearheading the effort to collecting over sixty paintings portraying Rutgers presidents, prominent trustees, professors and of the chapel's namesake, Sophia Astley Kirkpatrick.[2]: p.25, 57 [24] Kirkpatrick's portrait, painted by an American artist named G. Bruecke, is the only woman among the collection. The earliest portraits date to the eighteenth century.[24]

The walls inside Kirkpatrick Chapel are adorned with memorial plaques recording the names of Rutgers graduates who died in war.

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d This inflation adjustment calculation projects that $1 in 1871 would have $19.23 in purchasing power in 2013, using data compiled by Oregon State University Political Science professor Robert Sahr in "Inflation Conversion Factors for years 1774 to estimated 2023, in dollars of recent years" which he asserts reflects reflecting final 2012 CPI (2.29594 in dollars of 1982–84). Last update 15 May 2013. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  2. ^ a b c Addresses at the inauguration of Austin Scott, Ph.D. as President of Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N.J. Wednesday February 4th, 1891. (New Brunswick, Rutgers College, 1891).
  3. ^ For information on Thomas Astley, see: MS.206 Merchants Collection (1773–1864) at the Johns Hopkins University Milton S. Eisenhower Library Special Collections in Baltimore, Maryland; further according to Guide to the Manuscript Collections of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1991), the Claude Unger Collection, 1706–1937, the extensive Simon Gratz Collection (250A) held by the society includes many of Thomas and John Astley's records and correspondence regarding foreign trade and land transactions. See also Papers of George Woods, 1762–1827 and MG 147: John Anderson Papers, 1684–1904 at the Pennsylvania State Archives (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania).
  4. ^ a b c d e f Wilson, James Grant. Memorials of Andrew Kirkpatrick, and his wife Jane Bayard. (New York: privately published, 1870).
  5. ^ a b Kirkpatrick, Jacob (Rev.) and Hale, George. The Kirkpatrick Memorial: Or, Biographical Sketches of Father and Son and a Selection from the Sermons of the Rev. Jacob Kirkpatrick, Jr. (Philadelphia: Westcott & Thomson, 1867).
  6. ^ a b United States Congress. "Kirkpatrick, Littleton, (1797–1859)" in Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–present (online edition). Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Rutgers College and Raven, John Howard (Rev.) (compiler). Catalogue of the Officers and Alumni of Rutgers College (originally Queen's College) in New Brunswick, N.J., 1766–1916. (Trenton, New Jersey: State Gazette Publishing Company, 1916.
  8. ^ United States Congress. "Bayard, John Bubenheim, 1738–1807" in Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–present (online edition), citing Wilson, James Grant. Colonel John Bayard (1738–1804) and the Bayard Family of America. (New York: Trow’s Printing and Bookbinding Co., 1885). Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  9. ^ a b c d e The John Bogart Letters: Forty-two Letters written to John Bogart of Queen’s College now Rutgers College and Five Letters written by him, 1776–1782. (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers College Publications, 1914); citing Somerset County Historical Quarterly. 1(4):250, and Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, 2nd Series, II:79.
  10. ^ Demarest, William Henry Steele (Rev.). History of Rutgers College: 1776–1924. (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers College, 1924), 436.
  11. ^ Lewis, Joseph Volney. Rutgers College: The Celebration of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Its Founding as Queens College, 1766-l9l6. (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers College, 1917)
  12. ^ a b c d e Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey — Kirkpatrick Chapel. "History". Retreived 3 September 2013.
  13. ^ Organ Historical Society — Aeolian-Skinner Archives. Specifications. Skinner Organ Co. Opus 255 (1916): New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University - Kirkpatrick Chapel. Retrieved 3 September 2013. Compiled from Skinner, Ernest M. and Kinzey, Allen. E.M. Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner Opus List: According to Company Records with input by others, plus information on Ernest M. Skinner & Son Company (Richmond, Virginia: Organ Historical Society, 1997).
  14. ^ a b c Spivey Mark. "Kirkpatrick Chapel's historic pipe organ goes silent as electronic replacement signals changing times: Mason Gross Dean: Renovation costing $4-5 million in the works; pipe organ either to be replaced or renovated" from mycentraljersey.com (a Gannett company) (19 May 2013). Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  15. ^ Lawn, Sand and Kinzey, Allen. Aeolian-Skinner Opus List (via the Organ Historical Society). Retrieved 3 September 2013. Compiled from Skinner, Ernest M. and Kinzey, Allen. E.M. Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner Opus List: According to Company Records with input by others, plus information on Ernest M. Skinner & Son Company (Richmond, Virginia: Organ Historical Society, 1997).
  16. ^ Organ Historical Society. "The Ernest M. Skinner Co., Opus 255, 1916 (OHS Database ID 22347) — Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Kirkpatrick Chapel" in their Pipe Organ Database (entry last updated 23 May 2013). Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  17. ^ Organ Historical Society — Aeolian-Skinner Archives. Specifications. Aeolian-Skinner Organ Co., Inc. Opus 255-C (1958): New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University - Kirkpatrick Chapel. Retrieved 3 September 2013. Compiled from Skinner, Ernest M. and Kinzey, Allen. E.M. Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner Opus List: According to Company Records with input by others, plus information on Ernest M. Skinner & Son Company (Richmond, Virginia: Organ Historical Society, 1997).
  18. ^ a b c d e Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey — Kirkpatrick Chapel. "Stained Glass Windows". Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h DiIonno, Mark. "Di Ionno: At historic Rutgers chapel, stained glass is still shining" in The Star-Ledger (8 August 2012). Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  20. ^ Staff. "Henry J. Weston A Suicide" in The New York Times (9 June 1898). Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  21. ^ Staff. "Henry L. Janeway Dead, Wall Paper Manufacturer and Trustee of Rutgers College Since 1862" in The New York Times (19 October 1909). Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  22. ^ Despite DiIonno's article mentioning only the elder Rev. Frelinghuysen, the inscription on the Charter Window states that it was given "In Memory of Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen and his sons Theodorus Frelinghuysen, John Frelinghuysen."
  23. ^ Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Rutgers Leaders, Rutgers History: Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh – Queen’s College President, 1786 to 1790. Retrieved 17 August 2013. This was originally published as Frusciano, Thomas J. "Leadership on the Banks: Rutgers' Presidents, 1766–2004", in The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries LIII(1) (June 1991).
  24. ^ a b Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey — Kirkpatrick Chapel. Portraits in Kirkpatrick. Retrieved 2 September 2013.

Further reading

  • Catalogue of Portraits Exhibited in Kirkpatrick Chapel, Old Queen's, Library, Van Nest Hall, Alumni House, Alumnae House, College Hall, Voorhees Chapel, Woodlawn (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University, 1937).

40°29′56″N 74°26′45″W / 40.49875°N 074.44575°W / 40.49875; -074.44575

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