About the Smith Chapel
The
chapel’s octagonal sanctuary is 48 feet wide east to west and 53 feet
wide north to south. It has moveable seating for up to 180 people. Its
dramatic ceiling is 52 feet from the floor to the highest peak and is
constructed of Douglas fir. A sound system for the hearing-impaired is
available.
The altar is moveable and can be
placed at almost any location within the worship space. Because this is
a multi-faith chapel, there are no permanent ornaments or hangings
specific to any religious belief.
Those who come to lead worship
services are asked to bring any vestments or church furnishings specific
to their service, and those may be stored in the sacristy, a room
adjacent to the worship space
The upper level of the chapel
includes offices for the chapel coordinator, the campus ministry
representatives, and the college’s Center for Service Leadership. The
lower level of the chapel includes a gathering area for receptions and
conversation and a conference room for meetings.
An elevator is included to ensure that the chapel is accessible to all.
The
Carillon
The Smith Chapel’s bell tower contains the forty-eight-bell Floyd and Juanita Smith Carillon. The bells were installed in April, 2002.
The largest of the forty-eight bells
weighs 1,344 pounds and has a forty-inch diameter at the mouth of the
bell. The smallest weighs fifteen and one-quarter pounds and measures
six and five-eighths inches in diameter at the mouth.
The carillon bells are hung
“dead” in a steel framework; that is, they are not swung by a wheel
and rope when played. The clappers are brought to the bells using
levers, a system of counterbalanced transmission bars. In a small room
below the carillon is the hand clavier, a mechanism connected directly
with the clappers. The bells are played from this manual in the
chapel’s tower room, which is accessed through the chapel
coordinator’s office. A practice clavier is located in the conference
room.
The carillon bells were cast by
Meeks, Watson, and Company, bell founders located in Georgetown, Ohio.
The bells are made from “bell metal,” a bronze consisting of eighty
percent copper and twenty percent tin. The same alloy has been used for
carillon bells since the 1600s.
Most of the music published for the carillon can be played on forty-eight bells, or four octaves. A forty-eight bell carillon permits teaching and practice of almost the entire literature of carillon music.
Dedication
Chapel
If you look closely, you will see
that the Floyd and Juanita Smith Carillon was constructed separately
from the chapel itself. At the base of the carillon tower is the
dedication chapel, and area designed for quiet personal contemplation
and prayer.
One of the granite wall panels in
the dedication chapel lists the names of all people who have given gifts
of property to Penn State Behrend.
The Organ
The organ for the Smith Chapel is
being constructed by the Martin Ott Pipe Organ Company of St. Louis,
Missouri over a period of two and one-half years. The company represents
three generations of organ builders. This will be the one-hundredth
organ made by the Martin Ott Company.
With a design specific to the
construction of the chapel, the organ has twenty-three rows of pipes and
twenty-one stops, or types of sound, available. The organ case, with
mortise and tenon construction, is oak. Most of the 1,208 pipes were
built by a German pipe-maker, but the wind reservoir and the toe studs
will be built by Organ Supply Industries in Erie. The organ will be
completed in June 2003.
Materials
The Smith Chapel is constructed of brick manufactured by the Glen-Gery Brick Company. It is a utility brick, larger than brick used in residential construction.
Two colors of brick were used:
Heartland Series Adrian and Heartland Series Shelby. The
same type of brick were used on the inside and the outside of the
building.
Architects and Craftsmen
The architects for the Smith Chapel
were Noelker and Hull Associate, Inc., of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. They are the same firm that designed to chapel at Camp David,
Maryland, the retreat of America’s Presidents.
Perry Construction Company of Erie
completed the construction, and landscaping design was prepared by
Werley and Associates.
If you visit the Smith Chapel in the spring, you will see hundreds of daffodils blooming. They are the gift of Rick and Noreen Griffith, who also came and planted the bulbs in the fall of 2001.