Sandstone and limestone rise around you in the Princeton University Chapel, evoking a small English cathedral here in New Jersey. It replaces an older chapel that burned down in 1920, and was designed in 1921 by Ralph Adams Cram in his signature style. Built by the university between 1924 and 1928 at a cost of $2.3 million, it was rededicated in an interfaith ceremony in 2002 following a major two-year restoration.
Its size and design deliberately evoke a small cathedral of the English Middle Ages; at the time it was built the only university chapel of its size was King's College Chapel at the University of Cambridge. Look at the materials: a poured concrete foundation supports a superstructure of sandstone and limestone. The main sanctuary contains a narthex, a gallery, a nave, two transepts joined by a crossing, and an elevated choir.
Everywhere you look the chapel's iconography unfolds in stained glass, stonemasonry, and wood carvings. Notice in the stained glass the four "great windows", one facing each cardinal direction, and the four "Christian epic" windows in the walls of the choir, with iconography planned by Albert M. Friend of Princeton's Department of Art and Archaeology. Notice the windows, the carvings, and the stone that fill this chapel.