Lois Perkins Chapel as Memory Space
The Lois Perkins Chapel, once the heart of the community, is now more of a materialized memory of an older Southwestern.
In its early years, the Chapel was revered as a prize for Southwestern’s campus and community. Megaphone articles from the early 1950s refer to it as “beautiful” and “stately,” and a large number of official campus events were held there. These included fraternity and sorority initiations, voice and instrument recitals, and Commencement and Convocation ceremonies.
The Chapel was host to a number of leaders from surrounding churches and cities who came to preach at the Chapel for the student body, many of whom were influential in the Methodist conferences of the area. Collective attitudes at the time regarded the presence of the Chapel and the prevalence of events held there as a source of pride and a place of belonging.
Alumni of Southwestern returned often for annual events, such as the Candlelight service and the Homecoming service, and important milestones in their own lives. The first of many alumni marriages in the Chapel took place on January 6 of 1951, and is mentioned in the January 12, 1951 edition of The Megaphone. The first christening happened during weekly Chapel services in February of 1964. When students passed away, such as the death of Dan Rea in 1967 from drowning in the San Gabriel River, memorial services for family and fellow students were held in the Chapel. Memorial services for former presidents, faculty, and administrative staff have also been located there. These events show how integral the Lois Perkins Chapel was to community life at the time: it offered a place for collective experiences, both celebration and mourning, and was largely regarded as a unifying space for those who entered.
Required weekly Chapel services were held on Thursday morning through much of the Chapel’s existence, as well as optional services in the evening or on other days for those students with intentions to become involved in ministry after graduation. During the time that Chapel was a required part of the Southwestern experience, up until 1967, the space would have facilitated a large amount of collective experience, and was a significant site for the cultivation and sharing of collective memory.
The Lois Perkins Chapel was not just a site for solemn occurrences or mandatory attendance. It was also a place where students expressed rebellion and individuality. According to the November 11, 1966 Megaphone, several students placed step ladders in the belltower of the Chapel and set a pumpkin atop each of the four spires to celebrate Halloween. This same belltower is also home to several decades worth of graffiti, now safely padlocked behind a trapdoor. A 1989 Megaphone article describes a half-drank cup of beer left between the pews, where undoubtedly a student used the Chapel for a less-than-religious purpose. In this way, the space has been used by individuals with intentions different from those of the institution, which has resulted in a multilayered and complex collective memory space.
Currently, there are no Southwestern sanctioned events that take place regularly in the Chapel, aside from Honors Convocation and Candlelight and a few special services every so often throughout the year. There are several groups that meet for student-led weekly worship, and occasionally sorority and fraternity events will be held in the Chapel.
For much of the school year, however, the Chapel sits empty. Those current students who choose to spend time in the Chapel, for whatever reason, have a unique claim to it as an individual memory space, but do not share the community experience of the past.
