The cornerstone of Grove City College’s beautiful Quad is Harbison Chapel, the spiritual center of campus. For almost a century, the chapel has served as a house of worship, a meeting place, lecture hall and music venue, a place where the College community comes together to pray, learn, celebrate and reflect.
The gothic church features stunning stained-glass windows depicting education and learning, the reformation, classical philosophers and biblical figures, and American and college history. MORE>>
Harbison Chapel was completed in 1931 and dedicated on the same day as the Hall of Science (now the Smith Hall of Science & Technology), marking the beginning of a decades-long expansion of campus to Upper Campus.
It is named for industrialist Samuel Harbison, a College trustee who pledged money for the chapel, but died before construction, leaving his heirs to build the chapel. When it came time to lay the cornerstone in 1930, the Great Depression was raging and Harbison’s sons were given the option to defer the building project. They insisted on going ahead and had to sell their homes to cover construction costs. The work provided jobs for many local families in those hard times.
The integration of faith and learning that defines Grove City College is reaffirmed and reinforced at Harbison Chapel during weekly worship services and myriad Christ-centered programs and student ministries that meet here.
In the College’s earliest days, students were required to attend chapel six days a week. That wasn’t unusual for the time, but as the 20th century progressed, other colleges and universities dropped the requirement. Not so for Grove City College, though by late 1960s by-rote attendance to get chapel credits was the norm for many students.
As part of the effort to revive the College’s Christian character in the 1970s, the chapel program was revamped and strengthened by a succession of clergy, including Dr. Bruce Thielemann, Dr. Richard Morledge ’54, Rev. Stanley Keehlwetter and others who tailored worship and ministry programs to suit students and the times. That work continues today to the benefit of students and the glory of the Lord.