Finney Memorial Chapel

Date

1908-present

Location

90 North Professor Street

Architects/Collaborators

Cass Gilbert (1859-1934), New York City (architect)
George Feick, Sandusky (contractor)

Style

Romanesque with Renaissance Revival elements

History

In 1903 College president Henry Churchill King approached Frederick Norton Finney, former President Charles Grandison Finney’s son, about construction of a new chapel to honor the former, illustrious president. F.N. Finney responded favorably to the idea of the chapel and suggested two architects, Charles Follen McKim and Cass Gilbert. King selected Gilbert, and disagreements quickly developed between Finney and Gilbert, and King became the mediator. The architect struggled with the effort to find the correct blend of the College’s restrained austerity and the environment created by Peters Hall, Carnegie Library and Warner Gymnasium. He settled on an interpretation of the Romanesque of Southern France.

The chapel was built on the site of President Finney’s former home at Lorain and Professor Street. It was dedicated June 21, 1908, as part of the seventy-fifth anniversary celebrations for Oberlin College. Gilbert’s vision for the interior, however, was not realized as the College was unwilling to expend funds to achieve his aesthetic goals. In 1982, architect William Blunden, using a Gilbert drawing, led a renovation of the chapel. Blunden selected interior colors that brought the space closer to Cass Gilbert’s original intention. Changes of the interior intended to better facilitate Gilbert's original vision concluded in 1992, when the chapel finally received its geometric rose stained glass window, designed by Robert Mangold.

The original Skinner organ was extensively rebuilt by Aeolian-Skinner in the early 1950s and then sold to Truro Episcopal Church of Fairfax, Virginia in 1999 with the arrival of the new C.B Fisk Opus 116. The Fisk organ, whose installation was completed in 2001, was  partially financed by a bequest by Kay Africa plus gifts from others including Richard Connelley ’50 and the Phoebe Haas Foundation.

From its 1908 opening, the chapel served as a central space for performances and collegiate, community, and religious meetings. The original seating capacity of 1960 was intended to accomodate the entire student, faculty, and staff population of Oberlin College. Even after requirements for daily chapel attendance were reduced to four days per week  and then halted entirely, College and community members still utilized the chapel for rallies, protests, concerts, lectures, formal convocations, theater performances, weddings, and more. With its current seating intended to accomodate 1,200 people and a larger, renovated stage, Finney Memorial Chapel continues to welcome performers, visitors, and speakers from around the world. 

Finney Memorial Chapel was listed on the National Register as part of the Oberlin College thematic district nomination in 1978. It was listed as an Oberlin Historic Landmark by the City of Oberlin in November 1997.

For other College buildings designed by Cass Gilbert, see the Allen Memorial Hospital, Allen Memorial Art Building, Bosworth Hall, and the Cox Administration Building.

Sources
Geoffrey Blodgett, Finney Chapel (Oberlin: Oberlin College, 1973). 

Geoffrey Blodgett, Oberlin Architecture, College and Town: A Guide to Its Social History (Oberlin: Oberlin College, 1985), 16-17.

"Oberlin Window (Finney Chapel), Final Project Study," Allen Memorial Art Museum. 

Ohio Historic Inventory for Finney Memorial Chapel by M. Fedelchak Harley, L. Previll, Ohio State Historic Preservation Office, 10/14/2000, accessed from the Oberlin Heritage Center website, May 26, 2015.

Robert S. Fletcher, "Within These Walls," The Oberlin Alumni Magazine 50, no. 4 (March 1954): 9-12. 

Revision History
This entry was revised in 2025 by Camille Thorp as part of the Historic Preservation Winter Term course.