One of the challenges of describing a place is giving enough information to picture what it looks like. The picture above is the United States Naval Academy. Although there is more of the campus (or “Yard,” as all the people at the Academy seem to call it, all 338 acres of it) to the north of the bridge on the upper left of the picture (and St. John’s College where we’re staying is just to the left of the bridge as it crosses the Severn River to the Academy side), this picture shows where most of the action takes place. The dome toward the left is the Academy Chapel, which is one of the first buildings we see when we pass onto the campus.
I haven’t yet seen all of the chapel….and “chapel” doesn’t really describe it adequately, as it seats 2,500 people…but we did a preliminary reconnaissance today. It’s an impressive building, inside and out. It’s actually the third chapel on the grounds. I hope to find pictures similar to those inside the chapel to show you, but the first building was an unremarkable Greek Revival (read: a wood building that they attached Ionic or Corinthian columns to out front), and the second was a nice if conventional Gothic Revival. The current chapel is pure Beaux Arts/City Beautiful monumentality, both in its construction and in its position in an axial layout:
When one of my teacher colleagues and I entered this afternoon, the organ started playing as soon as we entered. It’s an impressive sound, with lots of pipes:
The chapel forms a Latin cross, with a dome on top that is visible throughout Annapolis. The dome is about 200 feet (61 meters) high:
The view toward the rear of the church is equally impressive:
But perhaps the most interesting thing is that the church, though containing a cross both on the outside of the monumental doors and above the apse, is actually the home for multiple services, despite the layout as a classic cathedral form with narthex, apses, and the usual paraphernalia one finds in Western Christian architecture. Here is a description of the types of religious services offered in the chapel (yes, you can see my reflection in the glass; the picture is in the atrium of the chapel…assuming that chapels [as opposed to cathedrals] can actually have atria):
In days where religious intolerance in American society seems to be on the rise, it is refreshing to see the Navy recognizing and honoring cultural diversity in religious thought.
LessThan3ley 