17. Goodrich Chapel

It took the College nearly 14 years, amid the climactic times following World War II, to raise the funds necessary to finally complete the Chapel in 1958. By 1939, the old chapel in South Hall was filled to capacity, and by the end of 1948 Dr. Frederic S. Goodrich, professor of English Bible and College chaplain for more than half a century, in whose honor the building was named, had died.

In 1953, the proposal came up again to abandon the 65-year old Methodist Church at Ionia and Erie Streets in Albion and build a combination college-town chapel-church adjacent to the College campus. Not all members of the church agreed, but enough were tired of the limited parking spaces, inadequate church school facilities, leaking roof and flooding basement to vote in favor of the proposal.

Upon completion, there was a week of celebration, beginning September 21, 1958 when the local congregation met for the last time at the Erie Street Church for a brief prayer service and then marched downtown to campus for a dedication service for the chapel. The week wrapped up the following Sunday with the dedication of the E.E. Horner Memorial Organ and the Antiphonal Organ, presided over by Rev. Wayne H. Fleenor, '24. (Fennimore, pp.581-587)

The sanctuary seats more than 1,400 people, vs. the original plans for capacity at 800. Chapel offices and classrooms house the Music Department in the basement and tower.

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