In Praise of Sage Chapel, East Hill’s Beloved House of Worship

Built in an era when the University was under fire for being nonsectarian, it offers respite from a bustling campus

By Corey Ryan Earle ’07

Hired as professor of moral and intellectual philosophy, Wilson was a Harvard Divinity School graduate who had spent time as a Unitarian minister before becoming an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church.

Cornell had faced withering attacks from clergy and the media for its nonsectarian founding, which was unusual at a time when religion was a major force in higher education.

Cornell had faced withering attacks from clergy and the media for its nonsectarian founding, which was unusual at a time when religion was a major force in higher education.

Faculty were accused of atheism—and the fact that students weren’t required to attend chapel services was considered evidence of the new university’s sacrilegious ways.

In his writings and public remarks, founding president Andrew Dickson White often attempted to clarify that nonsectarianism did not equate to an un-Christian philosophy.

“We will labor to make this a Christian institution,” he said in his inaugural address. “A sectarian institution may it never be.”

Amid attacks by denominational forces, trustee Henry Sage offered to fund a chapel four years after Cornell opened; the first professor of architecture, Charles Babcock, was commissioned to design it.

Constructed of brick instead of stone, the building cost only $30,000, less than half of Morrill Hall and about one quarter of McGraw Hall.

We will labor to make this a Christian institution—a sectarian institution may it never be.

A.D. White

Sage Chapel officially opened on Sunday, June 13, 1875, four days before the University’s seventh Commencement.

The original structure was smaller and less ornate, with subsequent additions and renovations expanding its footprint and beautifying its interior (and removing its original tower).

Capacity of the L-shaped building was about 500 students, with the main chapel oriented east-west (as it is today) and a smaller chapel extending south.

The Ithaca Daily Journal noted, tongue-in-cheek, that the eminent faculty processing to the chapel at “the great infidel University” was “a sight to discomfit those carping individuals whose daily nourishment seems to come from finding atheistic evidences in the University.”

Organ music at the opening was provided by William Henry Miller 1872, who years later would be the architect of the neighboring Uris Library building and Stimson Hall.

The first sermon was given by Reverend Phillips Brooks, rector of Boston’s Trinity Church—perhaps better known today as the lyricist of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

Instead of hiring a campus chaplain, White proposed a rotating chaplaincy that would bring eminent figures of all faiths to speak, thus attracting students to services instead of compelling them.

“I felt that leading men coming from week to week from the outside world would be taken at the value which the outside world puts upon them,” he wrote in his autobiography, “and that they would bring in a fresh atmosphere.”

In the chapel’s first year, it welcomed clergymen from Presbyterian, Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, Unitarian, Episcopal, and Universalist Churches; in January 1896, Rabbi Emil Hirsch became the first Jewish speaker.

A plaque over the stone pulpit recognizes visits from Martin Luther King Jr. in 1960 and Martin Luther King Sr. in 1979.

The chapel also has the distinction of hosting some of the first electric lighting on campus (or anywhere): arc lights were hung in its belfry in 1879.

Four major renovations enlarged the chapel as the student population grew.

Instead of hiring a campus chaplain, White proposed a rotating chaplaincy that would bring eminent figures of all faiths to speak, thus attracting students to services instead of compelling them.

The memorial antechapel, with its crypt, was built in 1883–84 on the northwest side, providing a final resting place for the University’s founders and their families. The chapel’s eastern portion, including the apse with its secular mosaic, was constructed in 1898–99.

The northeast transept was added in 1903–05 to house the organ and choir loft, and much of the interior decoration accompanied this renovation.

Finally, the west side was extended in 1940, moving the organ and choir loft while expanding seating capacity to around 1,000 (although it has since decreased).

The large rose window, depicting the 12 apostles of Christ, dates to the original building but was moved westward in the addition. Sage’s gorgeous stained glass windows—added over the decades, often in memory of faculty or alumni—remain a highlight for visitors.

The chapel has the distinction of hosting some of the first electric lighting on campus (or anywhere): arc lights were hung in its belfry in 1879.

In addition to its role in religious activities, the chapel has been an important musical venue, hosting organ recitals as well as the Glee Club and University Chorus and many other performances.

The chapel currently houses two organs. The Aeolian-Skinner in the choir loft was installed in 1940, maintaining pipework and other elements from an earlier instrument. At the front is a boxy-looking, 18th-century Neapolitan organ that the University acquired in 2000.

In the decades after Sage opened, Cornell expanded the footprint of its spiritual activities with the opening of Barnes Hall—originally built for the Christian Association—and later with Anabel Taylor Hall as the home for Cornell United Religious Work, the nation’s first collegiate interfaith program.

But the chapel, at the heart of campus, continues to offer a tranquil space for reflection, faith, and an escape from prelims.

An expert on Big Red lore, Corey Ryan Earle ’07 teaches “The First American University,” a wildly popular spring semester course on Cornell history.

Top: A “Soup & Hope” event from 2024 (Noël Heaney / Cornell University).

Published January 13, 2026

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Comments

1. 

   George Weiner, Class of 1964

   13 Jan, 2026

   Notably, there’s also a stained glass window honoring Michael “Mickey” Schwerner ‘61, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi in 1964. Both of Goodman’s parents, Carolyn ‘30 and Robert ‘35, graduated from Cornell.

   Reply

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