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Williams S. Houghton Memorial Chapel

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1896–1899, Heins and La Farge. Wellesley College.

This heavy walled and Tudor-detailed chapel, a gift to the college from the children of a trustee, is a lesser work by the original architects of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York. Heins and La Farge won this competition against A. W. Longfellow Jr.; Peabody and Stearns; and other local firms. The serene interior, designed with “acoustic properties suitable to women's voices” according to the terms of the competition, rises from a Greek cross plan. Its openness is achieved by steel trusses above the arching woodwork of the ceiling. Decorative accents include windows by John La Farge and Louis Comfort Tiffany, a memorial to college president Alice Freeman Palmer by Daniel Chester French, and many Arts and Crafts furnishings.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
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Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "Williams S. Houghton Memorial Chapel", [Wellesley, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-WL11.8.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Massachusetts

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 519-519.

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