5 minute read
From the Archives
The Classroom From the Archives
A history of transformation
Reverend Cynthia “Cyndi” Skripak ’78 details her archival research into the shifting role of the Emma Willard Chapel over the last century and into the next.
BY CYNDI SKRIPAK ’78 (AS TOLD BY LUKE MEYERS)
I’ve always loved the tower and archway of the chapel on the Emma Willard campus, and the inviting steps leading up to it. I only recently realized that, as one of the three original structures on the Mount Ida campus, what we now call “Alumnae Chapel” has overseen the passage of every single student crossing the inner campus or, with permission from the seniors, sitting upon the Triangle since 1910. It was three alumnae from the Class of 1917 who, in a handwritten note from August 1944, shared their “consternation” at having learned from Miss Wellington of plans to make “this radical change” of the campus gymnasium, as they had known it, into a chapel building “set apart from the daily routine.”
As we witness the $40 million renovation and expansion of our chapel into the Alice Dodge Wallace ’38 Center for the Performing Arts, my thoughts go to a neatly typed (with a typewriter, mind you) invoice I found in the Emma Willard School archives that details the costs of a similar renovation from the 1940s. Wall treatments, floors, windows, lighting features, and a new roof made up some of the costs for the proposed change of the current gymnasium into a chapel. The total estimated amount for the project? Forty thousand dollars.
However, for the current students of that day, the need was clear. During the midst of World War II and the many pressures and anxieties faced by those at home, there was a desire to create a place to seek spiritual support in community, reflection, and worship. It was the Class of 1943 that played a special role in the conversion of the building with the initiation of the “Chapel Fund” through their senior gift of $650. Donations from subsequent graduating classes toward the “Alumnae Chapel” were received up until 1960.
In 1947, with the renovation well underway, the opening service was held at the chapel and that same year the original organ was given as a gift from Miss Julia Howard Bush. As verified by the archives, the first “Christmas Vespers” happened in 1949 and in 1950 the stained glass windows of “Christ, The Teacher” were installed. A column in the June 8, 1950, issue of The Clock called “Chapel Circle Corner” stated, “For all of us, this window brings nearer our dream of a beautiful chapel set apart for worship.”
It was not until 1954 that the Alumnae Chapel was formally dedicated during Commencement—one can find the original program in the archives today—and throughout the following years many further additions and renovations were made, including a nave, lectern,
Clockwise: School Government president Sue McKeehan ‘48, left, and study abroad student Florence Vester of Hague, Netherlands, right, stand in front of the newly renovated chapel, 1948. Co-chaplains Catherine Kotfila and David Kotfila (whose daughter, Charis, now works as a Resident Faculty member at Emma) perform their first service together at Academic Convocation, 1981. Worshipers stand in the chapel chancel and surround the front altar, 1975.
FROM THE ARCHIVES The Classroom
clergy seats, reredos partition, chancel, leaded glass panels, and an oratory screen. Chief among the chapel updates was a new, baroque-style pipe organ built by Fritz Noack Organ Company and dedicated in 1970— seven years before Fritz Noack’s daughter, Wiebke, would graduate from Emma Willard herself.
It was not only the features of the building that changed with the needs of students and alumnae of that time; there was a long list of chaplains who served the school up until the mid 80s. A partial list can be pieced together from the archives, including: Miss Harrie Taylor, a religion teacher, who served as surrogate chaplain throughout much of the 1960s, Reverend Robert Hammett (the last full-time chaplain) from 1967 to 1972, co-chaplains David Kotfila and Kate Kotfila (notably the first formal female chaplain) from 1981 to 1985, and finally Reverend Maria LaSala from 1985 to 1987. Many theologians throughout the Northeast and other chaplains from regional colleges and universities were guest speakers or preachers at Emma Willard over the decades.
My research this year in the Emma Willard archives has revealed many interesting details and led me down more than one rabbit hole, but a constant I found in regard to the chapel is change. From its initial construction as a gymnasium in 1910 to its ongoing evolution as the Alumnae Chapel throughout the 20th century, this structure has changed with the needs of students and Emma Willard School writ large. Over the decades, the interior space has housed special events, Vespers, Baccalaureate, concerts, classrooms, Bible studies, dance studios, offices, memorial services, and even weddings (including mine).
Although our founder never had the opportunity to see “ye old grey walls” of today’s chapel raised in her honor, I feel she may have appreciated the ingenuity and resourcefulness of those who applied its physical spaces and features to their needs as they were. And, in that tradition, the chapel soon takes on yet another purpose as a home for art and music, dance and performance, for students to express themselves and create community in a new kind of way. Meanwhile, an ongoing conversation on campus about providing for the current spiritual needs of adolescent girls will lead to creation of a new, flexible-use space somewhere else on campus. I am excited to see what this latest transformation of Alumnae Chapel will bring to the heart of campus. It will still be a landmark for every student, and the stairs will be an invitation to come inside and continue the proud tradition of learning and growing as a community in body, mind, and spirit that our Emma education offers each of us.
