organizations, people, traditions

Chapel Builders Alumni Association

The Chapel Builders Alumni Association was formed after the completion of the Chapel in December 1932, and consisted of all the men involved in the four-year period of its construction. The Association met yearly on or around December 19, the day that the final capstone was laid at the top of the Chapel. During these reunions, the builders would meet in the Chapel in the late afternoon to spend time among their achievements and with each other. Afterwards, a memorial service would be held in the Crypt Chapel by President Ogilby. In the evening, a banquet was offered in Hamlin Hall during which speeches were delivered reminiscing on the colossal effort of building the Chapel.

Chapel Builders Association with President Jacobs, 1967. Photo credit: Trinity Alumni Magazine, Fall/Winter 1968

In all, more than 170 men were involved in completing the construction; the original list of the laborers names, sub-contractors, and supply firms involved can be found in the Appendix to The Chapel of Trinity College (1951 ed.), though this list does not include the names of men who worked on later additions to the Chapel. Around 40 men attended the reunion annually.

The Annual Meeting of the Chapel Builders Association was instated by President Ogilby and was held annually until his death in August 1943. For four years after Ogilby’s death the tradition lapsed, however, it was revived in 1947 and continued until at least the late 1970s. In the later years of the tradition, the reunion was sometimes held in April, although most years it was still held sometime in December. The reunions were a product of the “strong sense of loyalty to the building” felt by the builders, which President Ogilby wanted to reinforce by bringing the men together each year to admire the fruits of their meticulous labor, which remains the pride of Trinity’s campus.

The Crypt Chapel service, led by the chaplain after Ogilby’s death, followed the exact order of the service performed weekly by the President during the construction of the Chapel, with the important addition of prayers offered for the deceased workmen. The names of the men who have died since the beginning of construction can be found carved into the limestone wall of the Cloister.

Speakers who addressed the Chapel Builders at the annual banquet dinner over the years included President Albert Jacobs, Rev. Gerald B. O’Grady, Jr. (chaplain), and many of the men who personally worked on the building. In the 1950s, groups of Trinity musicians such as the Pipes would perform barbershop melodies for the men during the banquet and afterwards, the men were invited to attend student performances and sporting events on campus. Students were invited to the tour of the Chapel during the Reunion and encouraged to ask the men questions about its construction.

Chapel builders, ca. 1935. Photo credit: Trinity College Archives

The Chapel’s construction was put into peril by the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, which threatened the building’s funds. During this time, the workers took a significant cut in pay. However, many of them still contributed 50 cents a week from their meager paychecks during this precarious time to contribute one of the stained glass windows as a gift.

During their annual inspections of the Chapel, the men would share about how they learned several arts and trades required for the building of a Gothic cathedral in the process of building the Chapel. These skills largely involved wood and stonework since the Chapel is built entirely without structural steel. Improvisations were made to complete the feat; a 1956 account of the reunion published in the Tripod details the men’s stories about intricately carving wood with tools made from files, ice picks, and screwdrivers.

Chapel builders, ca. 1952. Photo credit: Trinity College Archives

The men who used these makeshift means produced some of the most spectacular wood carvings in the Chapel, with several of them winning awards for their work. Other stories detailed how the men “drilled a hole lengthwise in one of the three-inch doors on the Chapel with a bit improvised out of a piece of pipe.” The rose-window, by far the most difficult part of the Chapel to construct, was carved over many weeks by a single man, the only person who had the stoneworking skills to create the intricate curves in its complicated blueprint. The man who crafted the stained-glass windows had the dying wish that his ashes be scattered under the Crypt floor.

It was also during 1956 that a committee was appointed to collect and record stories from the period of construction, including tales of the late President Ogilby, who was a frequent source of encouragement for the builders. The Chapel was one of Ogilby’s major accomplishments during his tenure, and his desire to lead the weekly service for the men was a part of his deeply personal religious motivation to erect the Chapel. “Although few of the masons, carpenters, or bricklayers were Episcopalians, Ogilby was able to inspire them to a love for the building,” Glenn Weaver writes in his History of Trinity College. Lewis Wallace, who served as the primary stonemason, was so dedicated to Ogilby’s project that he stayed at Trinity long after the Chapel was completed as Chapel Verger and then head of Buildings and Grounds. Over the years of the Association’s existence, the builders continued to contribute funds to make additions to the Chapel. Many of them, having begun the work of building at a young age in 1928, spent the majority of their lives giving to the Chapel in some way.