May 6, 1902. President John Ruthrauff attends worship at the chapel in Recitation Hall. Henry H. Lentz in his A History of Wittenberg College (1845-1945) describes the scene:

“He was sitting in his chair in a thoughtful attitude as the students filed in and took their place. ... The service was the most brief one of the year. ... the last hymn was announced, ‘My Faith Looks up to Thee.’ The last stanza read:

“When ends life’s transient dream,
When death’s cold, sullen stream
Shall o’er me roll;
Blest Savior, then, in love,
Fear and distrust remove;
Oh, bear me safe above,
A ransomed soul.’ “

It was the last time the students would see President Ruthrauff alive. He died later that day of kidney disease. Eighty-seven years have passed since Ruthrauff’s death, but his final appearance at Hiller hints at the history hidden within the chapel’s walls.

Located on Recitation Hall’s second floor, the chapel was built in 1886 in what can today be called “Collegiate-Gothic” style. Narrow shapes and ornamentation, including pointed arches and finials, characterize this style in an attempt to accentuate the structure’s verticality.

On June 13, 1886, the chapel was the site of the baccalaureate service for the Class of 1886. The event marked the first public meeting held in Recitation Hall as the new edifice was named a year later.

From 1886 until the 1950s, the college continued to use the chapel for worship services but added oratorical contests and other musical concerts, foreign language programs, vocational instruction, labs, and junior and senior plays, according to early editions of the Wittenberg Torch.

Between 1947-1948, Wittenberg rennovated the chapel’s chancel and then named the chancel after Robert Henry Hiller, a professor of German, art history, vocal culture and Greek who joined the faculty in 1911 and taught for more than three decades.

Hiller, who first directed the Wittenberg Glee Club, which practiced and performed in the chapel, also composed the school song and provided a translation of Homer’s Odyssey, according to a 1930 Torch article.

Compared to the rest of Recitation Hall, the chapel looks intriguing architecturally. Most of Recitation’s exterior architectural features are evenly balanced: two rosette windows in front, a four-sided clock tower and rows of four windows.

However, the majority of the chapel’s architectural features involve the use of “threes.” According to chapel designer E.O Fallis, the abundance of threes reflects the University’s Lutheran belief in the Trinity.

For example, the exterior of the chapel consists of groups of three stone sheets, each jutting out of a wall. Inside three circles adorn the center of the mantle above the chapel’s stage.

A symbol appears inside each circle, representing each of Wittenberg’s ideologies: a cross (spirituality), a book (knowledge) and a torch atop a globe (“Having light we pass it on to others”).

On the sides of each circle are blooms containing three petals, and a three-leaf clover design etched in the woodwork can be found along the stage’s side walls.

The walls on both sides of the stage’s front have six shield-shaped ornaments, and each ornament contains three more shields, arranged by size.

Three memorial plaques for the fourth, fifth and sixth presidents of the University, Rev. Samuel Ort, Rev. John Ruthrauff, and Rev. Charles Heckert, respectively, also hang on the chapel’s interior walls.

The chapel’s stained glass windows also possess interesting features. In the four corners of the windows’ square panes are designs emulating the seal of Martin Luther. The windows are Gothic in style and have rosette windows at the top.

In the center of each rosette, a structure similar to Recitation is depicted. Historical reports indicate that by the mid-1970s, the chapel began to house administrative personnel and equipment.

Foster N. “Doc” Parill, associate director of physical plant in 1984, noted in a 1984 Wittenberg Today article that the tiered floor of the chapel was leveled to create more office space in 1976.

Fortunately, at the time of the renovation, the University ruled that the woodwork in the chapel must be preserved.

Today, while the woodwork and stained glass windows offer insight into Wittenberg’s past, the chapel now reflects Wittenberg’s technological future.

Home to the University’s Computing Solution Center, the chapel houses 18 computers and a multi-media lab.

— Justin B. Dilley, ’01