Cornell University, Sage Chapel, Central Avenue, Ithaca, Tompkins County, NY

Significance: Sage Chapel is significant among American collegiate chapels of the 19th century as a synthesis of the principal architectural currents that influenced the design of such edifices between 1860 and 1900. It is unusual among university buildings of its period in the harmony of the design observed in planning additions to the original building.

The chapel is historically important as the setting for one of the first nonsectarian pulpits to be established in the chapel of an American university or college. Since 1875, leading preachers and theologians from most Christian sects and other influential religious thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries have spoke in the Sage pulpit.

Survey number: HABS NY-5726

Building/structure dates: 1875 Initial Construction

Building/structure dates: 1884 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1899 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1905 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1940 Subsequent Work

chapels colleges ithaca cornell university cornell university sage chapel sage chapel central central avenue tompkins tompkins county new york charles babcock cottier and company historic american buildings survey j and r lamb robert richardson john snaith photo ultra high resolution high resolution library of congress

1933 - 1940

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

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