From the Canning Liturgical Arts July Newsletter
Battell Chapel at Yale University was originally designed by Architect Russell Sturgis, Jr. and decorated by George Fletcher Babbs of Sturgis’s office. Sturgis visualized a grand, high Victorian chapel in kind with the two other buildings he designed for the University. Nearing the completion of the work, Sturgis ran into deficient funds and required valued engineering solutions to complete the project. The decision was made to install a flat coffered ceiling instead of the vaulted ceiling originally designed. At the time, this alternative saved five thousand dollars.
With this solution, Babbs was faced with the issue of merging the high reaching, gothic walls into a flat ceiling. The vaulted ceiling remained only in the apse. Babbs cleverly cut down the verticality of the lancet windows and pilasters by developing a linear design with bands running around the entire interior, through the window tracery, pilasters and arches. This design was anchored by a solid diaper pattern above the wainscot that also ran through the base of the pilasters and triumphant arch.
In the 1920s, Yale University redecorated the Chapel. The interior was painted to simulate ashlar block (see image to the right) to keep up with James Gamble Rogers’s new master plan for the campus in Collegiate Gothic Style. This decorative treatment covered the original stenciled decoration on the walls with gray stone. The only part that was not overpainted were the Greek cross and the symbols of the Trinity at the triumphal arch.
Through archival research Canning made the realization that some of the plaques on the walls were installed early on in the history of the interior. It was possible that the original decoration, beneath the ashlar, was perfectly preserved behind one of the plaques. Come to find out, the plaques had not been removed when the interior was painted to simulate an ashlar block proving Canning’s assumptions correct. The intricacies and colors of the original damask pattern were preserved underneath one of the dedication plaques. In removing the plaque, all were pleasantly surprised to find the piece was signed Louis Comfort Tiffany.
The scope of the project consisted of conservation, restoration, decorative painting, gilding, glazing and ornamental plaster repair. Through careful investigation and multiple finish exposures, the stencil patterns were identified and faithfully reinstated with historic colors. The restoration of Battell Chapel was one of John Canning & Company’s earliest historic preservation projects in Connecticut and among the company’s first of many comprehensive church restorations in the United States.
