Chapel

In 1928, Princeton dedicated the University Chapel designed by Gothic Revival architect Ralph Adams Cram. Among its distinguishing features are stained glass windows and furnishings that honor Biblical figures, Christian epics, and prominent Princetonians such as James Madison, the fourth president of the United States and a 1771 alumnus. The building materials include Pennsylvania sandstone, Indiana limestone, wood from Sherwood Forest in England, and a mid-16th-century pulpit imported from France. Additionally, the grand Mander/Skinner Organ, installed in 1928, features 109 stops and 8,000 pipes, including 60 trompettes en chamade (pipes mounted horizontally outside the organ case). The University Chapel, which seats 2,000, now serves as a site for daily prayer and meditation, Sunday services, and campus and community celebrations. The building also serves as a boundary of McCosh Courtyard, which includes McCosh Hall, Dickinson Hall, and the Mather Sundial, a 20-foot replica of the historic Turnbull Sundial constructed in 1551 at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.