Danforth Chapel

MAB-77
Off Chestnut Street, Berea
1938

Both the Danforth Chapel and the adjoining Fireside Room were the gift of William H. Danforth, founder of the Ralston Purina Company of St. Louis, Missouri, and a trustee of Berea College . Architects Jamieson and Spearl were also from St. Louis.

Executed in the Victorian Gothic style, the brick chapel is attached to the Jessie Preston Draper Memorial Building (MAB-37). Bascilical in plan with a steep gable roof, the Danforth Chapel contains stained-glass windows designed by the Willet Stained Glass Company of Philadelphia. On the east and west facades five pointed-arch bays of paired lancet windows with stone mullions are separated by brick buttresses that also have stone detailing. On the north facade, or gable end, one flattened pointed-arch bay which encloses four lancet windows with tracery, admits color-filtered light into the altar area. The north, east, and west exterior walls contain fifty-four stones from all over the world, including Istanbul, Greece, Rome, and Oberammergau, the birthplace of Martin Luther.