The purpose of the Seminary, according to its official
1811 Plan, was the cultivation of both sound learning and vital
piety in its students. Space was therefore provided in the original Seminary
building, now Alexander Hall, for
The purpose of the Seminary, according to its official
1811 Plan, was the cultivation of both sound learning and vital
piety in its students. Space was therefore provided in the original Seminary
building, now Alexander Hall, for an oratory or chapel as well as for a
library and lectures halls. This original chapel, located on the second floor of Alexander
Hall, was opened in 1818. It survives to this day little changed in appearance after 181
years and continues as a center of student life with prayer meetings, Bible study, and
other devotional exercises held there in the late evening.
With the rapid growth of the Seminarys student body, however, the oratory quickly
became too small. So in 1829, only eleven years after the completion of Alexander Hall,
the Seminary launched its first fund-raising campaign for the construction of a
The appeal from the Seminary faculty Archibald Alexander, Samuel Miller, and
Charles Hodge to the American Presbyterian churches complained that the want
of an adequate chapel is severely felt not only for the holding of meetings of the
students on the Sabbath but more particularly for meetings for prayer and speaking during
the course of the week
. There is no present deficiency in the whole institution more
deeply to be regretted than the want of a suitable chapel.
The response was generous. More than $6,000 was donated by the spring of 1833. With the
money in hand, the trustees selected local carpenter/architect Charles Steadman to design
the building, and construction began immediately. The chapel was completed on September
23, 1834, and has been in continuous use for meetings for prayer and speaking
every weekday since then during the academic year. It is the oldest house of worship in
Princeton. One hundred and s