Qualla: Duke Chapel

Duke Chapel: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Warren LeMay from Cullowhee, NC, United States, CC0. Julian Abele drew the building that sits at the center of Duke University. He was African American, trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and the chief designer for the Philadelphia firm of Horace Trumbauer. When Duke was rebuilt with James B. Duke's tobacco fortune in the 1920s and early 1930s, Abele designed much of West Campus, including the chapel that crowns the highest ridge on the property. He never visited the construction site. He could not have stayed in the segregated hotels of Durham. The 210-foot Collegiate Gothic tower that became the symbol of the university was designed by a man who in 1935 could not have attended its dedication as a guest.

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Image: Warren LeMay from Cullowhee, NC, United States | CC0

Duke Chapel: $2.3 Million in Stone

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bluedog423, Public domain. Plans for the chapel were first discussed in April 1925, the year after James B. Duke established the Duke Endowment with $40 million and renamed Trinity College for his father. The cornerstone was laid October 22, 1930. Construction took five years and cost $2.3 million. The cha...

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Image: Bluedog423 | Public domain

Duke Chapel: The Bell Harry Tower

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0. The 210-foot tower is modeled on the Bell Harry Tower of Canterbury Cathedral in England. It is 38 feet square at its base and houses a 50-bell carillon donated by The Duke Endowment. The heaviest bell, tuned to G-natural, weighs 11,200 pounds. The lightest weighs ten and a half ...

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Image: Antony-22 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Duke Chapel: The Stained Glass and the Million Pieces

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Duke University, Public domain. The 77 chapel windows were constructed by 15 artists and craftsmen over three years, including S. Charles Jaekle of G. Owen Bonawit. They are made from over a million pieces of glass imported from England, France, and Belgium. The largest window measures 17.5 by 38 feet. The smal...

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Image: Duke University | Public domain

Duke Chapel: Three Sarcophagi in Carrara Marble

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Erikjc, Public domain. The Memorial Chapel sits to the left of the main nave, behind iron gates, intended as a place for reflection. Along the left wall, three white sarcophagi of Carrara marble hold the university's benefactors: Washington Duke, who built the tobacco fortune that funded the university...

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Image: Erikjc | Public domain

Duke Chapel: Robert E. Lee's Empty Niche

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brian Carlson from Overland Park, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. Carved on the chapel's entrance portal are ten figures considered important to Methodism, Protestantism, and the American South: Bishop Francis Asbury, John Wesley, Martin Luther, Thomas Jefferson, Sidney Lanier, and others. The right wall held three figures labeled as statesman,...

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Image: Brian Carlson from Overland Park, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0