The Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel recently received attention for the installation of new doors. However, many Park students may not know about the structure’s rich history on campus.
Environmental Services crews worked this past summer with several improvements on including the new chapel doors – which will stand up to damaging winds and storm better, according to the Environmental Services department.
One of the most historical structures built on Park University’s campus is the Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel. Now only open for special events such as convocations, student activities and music performances, this church was simply a place for worship in the past.
Rumors have swirled for years the chapel is haunted and Park Archivist Carolyn Elwess, who was a student at Park and been a staff member since 1989, has fielded questions about the building for years.
“Around Halloween time, I always get asked if the Chapel is haunted, every year,” Elwess said. “As far as deaths, there were no records of those.”
Elwess has recently worked on a booklet of important information on the history of the chapel. According to Elwess’s booklet, “The Reverend George S. Woodward began preaching in Parkville in 1849, conducting services every other Sunday.”
According to the Park Stylus of 1931, the first actual church was built in 1852 but the Graham Tyler Chapel of today went under construction in November 1903 to be finished in January 1931. Landscape contractors were hired to set out an expensive collection of trees and shrubs and the ground around the new building was covered with sod.
The mindset behind this new chapel was to pursue a Gothic style and the building could now seat 700.
“Elaborate woodcarvings adorned the pulpits and the casework surrounding the exposed decorative organ pipes,” said Elwess.
A great deal of work was put into the chapel before a disaster in 1937. According to the Alumniad magazine, the chapel burned on Christmas Day that year – leaving everything destroyed. Apparently, some students were on campus, however, no fatalities or injuries were reported.
All the instruments, objects and equipment in the chapel had to be replaced. A year and one-half later, the new chapel was reopened Oct. 23, 1938, for Park’s first “Fine Arts Week,” according to Elwess. This included singing, instrument performance and a student play.
Despite its history, the chapel stands today as a work of art on campus. The woodcarving displayed in the chapel is the resemblance of “The Last Supper.”
“The carving was implemented by Alois Lang, an artist who grew up and received his training in the famous Bavarian town of Oberammergau,” said Elwess.
Another significant piece inside the Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel is its organ. It had to be replaced because of the fire from 1937.
Elwess has been working on her own issue of the history of the chapel but it’s to be continued.
“When I was in school here at Park, we as students were required to go to the chapel for church every other Sunday, now it’s just held for musical performances,” she said.
The new doors at the Chapel were dedicated Sept. 10, 2013.
