Hendricks Chapel
Construction Contract: Awarded to A.E. Stephens Company of Springfield, Massachusetts (November 1928)
Cornerstone Laid: June 9, 1929
Dedicated: June 8, 1930
First Student Services Held: September 21, 1930
Organ Dedication: October 5 & 8, 1930
New Organ Dedication: 1952
Style: Georgian Colonial
Architect: James Russell Pope and Dwight James Baum ('09)
Materials: Brick and limestone
Cost: $600,000
Notes:
Hendricks Chapel is named for Francis J. Hendricks, former Mayor of Syracuse, Assemblyman, State Senator and Republican leader of Onondaga County, who died in June 1920. Hendricks, a member-at-large of the Syracuse University Board of Trustees from 1895 to 1920 and member of the Forestry College Trustees from 1913 to 1920, left the University $500,000 for the erection of a memorial chapel in memory of his deceased wife, Eliza Jane Hendricks.
Hendricks Chapel seats 1,450, making it the third largest University chapel in the country at time of construction. The seats are in colonial style and the pulpit was the gift of the class of 1918. There were no funds for an organ at the time of the building's construction, but through the generosity of Kathryn Hendricks of Syracuse, niece of the late Senator, an Aeolian Organ was installed and dedicated in October, 1930. In 1952, a new organ built by Walter Holtkamp replaced the Aeolian organ.
In 1968 the University raised $18,000 for renovation of the Chapel's basement, including the Colonial Room, the Board Room and the Lounge. From 1980 to 1985 Hendricks was much more extensively renovated thanks to a $1.2 million refurbishment program. Workers installed new pews, repainted the Chapel's brick facing, and installed new floors. They also put in new lighting, new sound and heating systems and conducted a general overhaul of the building's interior and exterior.
