Venue Information

Kirkpatrick Chapel is part of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, chartered in 1766 as Queen’s College, the nation’s eighth-oldest institution of higher learning. The chapel was constructed in 1873 by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh in memory of Sophia Astley Kirkpatrick of New Brunswick, New Jersey, wife of Littleton Kirkpatrick, trustee of Rutgers College from 1841 to 1859. Rutgers College was made a residuary legatee of her estate, and her gift of $61,054.57 funded the chapel. This marked the first time in New Jersey history that an institution became heir to an estate. The building was designed to accommodate both the chapel and the library of the college. The original chapel consisted of just four bays. Almost half the building was the library. The reading room ran down the center of the building, flanked on either side by book stacks. The library was active from around 1880 until approximately 1904, when Voorhees Hall was built. After the construction of Voorhees Hall, the l ...