-
(Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, A Division of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, Travis Ratermann, photographer)
This chapel for the Presbyterian-affiliated university was built under the direction of contractor Gomer Kraus with funds donated by Jesse Munger in memory of her father, New York businessman Raymond Munger, who was noted for his interest in religion and education. It is a tall gable-fronted two-story Collegiate Gothic building of limestone and is one of Clarke’s few known designs in the style. The interior is particularly attractive with a hammer beam ceiling featuring carved angels at the ends of the wooden beams, wooden box pews, and a tile floor. Monumental pointed-arched windows are filled with stained glass from the Willet Studios of Philadelphia.
The university, initially known as Arkansas Cumberland College and established in Clarksville in 1891, is laid out with the buildings arranged around a long rectangular lawn dotted with trees. Clarke also designed the Classical Revival brick Science Hall (1924). Near the campus, at 212 N. College, is Clarke’s First Presbyterian Church (1919), which also is classical in style, with a columned corner entrance portico, an octagonal dome, and large round-arched stained glass windows.