Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery & Memorial, Chapel, Rue du General Pershing, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Departement de la Meuse (France), FR

Significance: Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery & Memorial is one of eight overseas World War I cemeteries redesigned and administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), a federal agency created in 1923. The practical necessity of burying American soldiers who died during the conflict was first handled by the War Department through the Office of the Quartermaster General's Graves Registration Service (GRS). At Meuse-Argonne the War Department proposed, but never constructed, a chapel on the site at the top of the hill behind the grave areas. ABMC improvements to the overseas cemeteries included a nonsectarian memorial chapel for each; as the largest cemetery Meuse-Argonne received the most expensive chapel.

The New York firm of York & Sawyer, with principal architect William Louis Ayres, was given the commission for designing the Meuse-Argonne Chapel, as well as new entrance pylons and other features. The Meuse-Argonne Chapel is a Romanesque Revival concrete and limestone building with a front gable center pavilion and long loggias to either side which terminate in end pavilions. Round arches characteristic of Romanesque architecture appear throughout the building. The tympanum and archivolt at the main doorway and the column and pilaster capitals in the loggias are heavily ornamented with stone carvings. The iconography of the carvings comes from a variety of sources, including Classical, Romanesque, Gothic, and some subtle imagery referencing contemporary military motifs. The Chapel also features an elaborate marble and limestone interior with a groin-vaulted dome. Additional sculpture appears around the walls of the Chapel's interior and on the marble altar. Located on the crest of the hill behind the burial sections, the view of the Chapel's front façade is framed by allées of clipped linden trees lining a grassy mall. Construction of the Meuse-Argonne Chapel took place in 1929-32.

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N152

Survey number: HALS US-2-A

Building/structure dates: 1929-1932 Initial Construction

Building/structure dates: 1938 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: ca. 1999 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 2015-2016 Subsequent Work

chapels war world war i gothic revival architectural elements architectural sculpture romanesque revival architectural elements loggias tile roofs monuments and memorials commemoration cemeteries national cemeteries departement de la meuse american battle monuments commission william louis ayres alfred alphonse bottiau charles d canfield charles milde and co paul philippe cret lisa pfueller davidson daniel de sousa e f caldwell george gibbs jacques greber heinigke and smith historic american landscapes survey hope and sons jansen and cie dana lockett jason w mcnatt maurice noyer military graves service france office of the veterans secretary general ryan pierce xenophon h price ricci and zari sontag and humeau pierres and granits ste des marbres christopher m stevens susse freres us commission of fine arts us war department office of the quartermaster general us war department york and sawyer photo meuse argonne american cemetery rue du general john pershing general pershing architecture ornament pilasters iconography landscape plans building plans architectural drawings library of congress france world war i wwi

1999

Library of Congress

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