Chapel Hall: Background, architecture and photos

Built in 1870, Chapel Hall was once the main hub of the university, serving as a chapel, auditorium, exhibit center, and dining hall. Chapel Hall is on the National Park Service (NPS) National Register of Historic Places.

According to the NPS, “Chapel Hall is one of the finest examples of post-Civil War collegiate architecture in the U.S.”

They go on to describe it as, “a picturesque, brownstone, High Victorian Gothic designed by Frederick C. Withers of the leading mid-nineteenth century firm of Vaux, Withers and Co. Chapel Hall is in the Ruskinian Gothic Revival style which was popular in the 1870s, but it exhibits a restraint and fine handling of materials which creates a subdued coloristic harmony unusual in buildings in this polychrome style.”

Photos courtesy the Office of Communications and Public Relations and the Gallaudet Archives.