St. Paul's Chapel, Columbia University
1160 Amsterdam Avenue | also 530 West 120th Street | Morningside Heights | built 1901
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1907
Olivia and Caroline Stokes give Columbia a chapel in memory of their parents
St. Paul's Chapel was begun in 1904 and completed in 1907 to designs by Howells & Stokes. Olivia and Caroline Stokes gave it in memory of their parents, James Stokes and Caroline Phelps. Greek-cross in plan, it has a high drum and dome over the crossing, and a portico of four columns topped by a Florentine gable.
“The Chapel, bearing the inscription, "For the Church of God", was a gift of Olivia and Caroline Stokes in memory of James Stokes and his wife Caroline Phelps.”
- 1907
John La Farge fills the apse with three windows of St. Paul preaching at Athens
In 1907 John La Farge installed windows in the chapel's apse, one of his last stained glass commissions, showing St. Paul preaching before the Athenian acropolis. Listeners on the left window are believers, while the right window has more skeptics and a Greek official on a judge's seat. La Farge used opalescent glass and layered plating for rich color. An inscription beneath Paul refers to Acts 17:23 and the unknown god.
Source: library.bc.edu
- 1907
Drum windows carry the arms of old New York families tied to Columbia's history
The chapel is a Byzantine design with Italian Renaissance detail in brick with limestone trim, terra cotta and bronze. Its twenty-four drum windows bear the coats of arms of old New York families linked to the university, including Van Cortlandt, de Peyster, Beekman, DeWitt Clinton and Rhinelander. Bronze torcheres flank the entry steps, and the portico columns are topped with winged cherubs rather than classical capitals.
“The twenty four windows in the drum of the dome are adorned with the arms of notable old New York families…”
- 1964
Students turn a basement storeroom into the Postcrypt Coffeehouse
In 1964 the campus chaplain, Rev. John D. Cannon, and student Dotty Sutherland cleaned and redecorated a small storage room in the chapel basement, creating the Postcrypt Coffeehouse. It was never a crypt; the name plays on Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postscript. Run entirely by student volunteers, the all-acoustic venue seats about 35 and has hosted Jeff Buckley, Dar Williams, Shawn Colvin and Ani DiFranco.
“The venue was established in 1964 with the help of the campus chaplain, Reverend John D. Cannon.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1966
The chapel is designated a city landmark, with Columbia's president 'happy to accept'
After a June 14, 1966 hearing at which two witnesses spoke in favor and none against, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated St. Paul's Chapel on September 20, 1966. Columbia president Grayson Kirk wrote to the commission that the university was happy to accept the designation. The commission praised the chapel's proportions and called it a unique example of American architectural design.
“In a letter to the Commission, Grayson Kirk, President of Columbia University, said that the University was "happy to accept this designation.”
- 1969
Simon and Garfunkel sneak recording gear into the chapel overnight for 'The Boxer'
Part of the big sound of Simon and Garfunkel's hit 'The Boxer' was recorded in an unauthorized late-night session inside St. Paul's Chapel, within its high stone walls. Columbia College Today reports that the duo smuggled in equipment. Art Garfunkel recalls that they stayed all night singing all 16 'li-la-lis.'
Source: college.columbia.edu
Further reading
Nearby
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- Jerome L. Greene Hall435 West 116th Street | 11 entries