AMASA STONE CHAPEL

The AMASA STONE CHAPEL on the CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIV. campus was erected by Mrs. John Hay and Mrs. Samuel Mather (see FLORA STONE MATHER) as a memorial to their father, AMASA STONE, in 1911. Amasa Stone ChapelIt was designed by Henry Vaughan of Boston, first architect of the Natl. Cathedral in Washington, DC, in the late Decorated Gothic style and was closely based on English models. It is constructed of Indiana limestone. A keystone bearing the carved head of Amasa Stone, taken from the old UNION DEPOT on the lakefront that Stone built in 1866, was placed over the east entrance. The plan of the chapel consists of a nave and choir, with narrow side aisles divided by slender stone shafts. The nave accommodates 545 persons and is lighted by clerestory windows and larger east and west windows. The tower is 121 ft. high to the top of the corner pinnacles. The chapel is used for various university events, such as convocations and commencement ceremonies. An apocryphal story dating from pre-federation days of WRU and Case Institute of Technology maintained that a west-facing gargoyle on the tower had its tongue sticking out toward Case Institute.

This sculpted head of Amasa Stone, first used as a keystone at the old Union Depot, now adorns the Amasa Stone Chapel. Wendell Morningstar Photography.

C. H. Cramer. Case Western Reserve Univ.: A History of the Univ., 1826-1976, (1976).