Construction of the Lois Perkins Chapel

The Lois Perkins Chapel, long considered the central building of Southwestern, was constructed using a sizable donation by Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, which was announced in 1943. Construction did not begin until after World War II, and ground was broken in September 1949 by Ruth Score, husband of then-president Score, who was ill. Score would not live to see the completion of the Chapel, but the cornerstone bears his name due to the time and energy he invested in the construction of the building. Cameron Fairchild was commissioned as the architect behind the Chapel, in keeping with the other buildings on campus that he designed.

Construction of the Lois Perkins Chapel progressed rapidly, and the building was dedicated on November 13, 1950 as part of a two-day celebration which culminated in the inauguration of President Finch, Score’s successor. The construction was surrounded by an air of excitement and anticipation from the student body; announcements for the “long awaited dedication” of the chapel appeared in the November 10, 1950 edition of the Megaphone. The next week, on November 17, 1950, student author Blitz Griffin wrote: “What had been a dream was a finished reality. The Lois Perkins Chapel had assumed its leadership role as a servant of God on the campus of Greater Southwestern.” This statement highlights the centrality of the Chapel as an instrument of the university’s long-standing evangelical mission, and reflects the culture of the general student population at the time.

Despite its dedication and usage, the Chapel was far from finished when it was opened. The late President Score’s wife and son donated the altar and three windows for the apse, but the rest of the chapel windows, donated by Mr. and Mrs. Prothro, were not installed until 1952. The Aeolian-skinner organ was installed in 1953, as was Charles Umlauf’s “Madonna and Child” sculpture. The Lois Perkins Chapel was then extensively remodeled in 1981. The renovation included the construction of a fenced courtyard which now houses the “Madonna and Child” as well as a small building that was originally used as a bride’s room but which now serves as an Interfaith Prayer Room.

The design and construction of the Chapel intentionally placed the building at the center of campus, at the apex of the horseshoe drive conceived of by Fairchild and first rendered in the Campus Plan of 1944. Later publications–including maps, pamphlets, and even the current Southwestern website–all call attention to the fact of the Chapel’s centrality–spatially, ideologically, and symbolically.

The Chapel was indeed central to the life of every student for many years, as Chapel attendance was required until the 1960s, and many annual University events were located there. As time has passed, however, the Chapel has maintained its central position spatially while it has been decentralized in terms of its function within the daily life of students.

The placement of the University seal in front of the Chapel in 1991, and the subsequent development of a superstition regarding stepping on it in the early 2000s, has actually driven foot traffic away from the chapel doors. It is hard not to see this as a metaphor of the University’s increasingly distanced connection to the Methodist Church as Southwestern reaches for a future beyond its tangled Methodist roots. The physical presence of the Chapel is something that demands recognition, prompting people to ask questions about how to reconcile Southwestern’s past with its present and future.

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