We
like to think of the Chapel as being the oldest
building in the Western Hemisphere. It was
constructed late in the 14th or early in the 15th
century in southeastern France, near the City
of Lyon. The chapel was part of a 60 room
chateau that belonged to a prominent French family.
After the French Revolution, it gradually became
dilapidated. Then, after the First World
War, a brilliant young French architect and archeologist
discovered the ruined chapel and decided to reconstruct
it.
In 1926 the Chapel was acquired by a wealthy New
York woman, Mrs. Gertrude Hill Gavin, and it was
transferred to her 50 acre estate on Long Island
where it was used regularly for Mass and other
services until her death in the late 1950's.
On Long Island the Chapel was attached to an impressive
French Renaissance chateau that Mrs. Gavin also
brought stone-by-stone from France.
In 1962 the Gavin estate passed into the possession
of Mr. And Mrs. Marc B. Rojtman, Shortly
before they were to move in, a fire, which smoldered
for sixteen hours, gutted much of the chateau
but almost miraculously spared the Chapel.
The Rojtmans presented the Chapel to Marquette
in 1964 and had it dismantled and sent to the
campus for the University to reconstruct.
A fleet of trucks, each truck carrying forty thousand
pounds, brought the Chapel stones to Milwaukee,
where the first shipment arrived in November 1964.
After the material was stored for the winter and
the ground was cleared, reconstruction on the
campus started in July 1965. The Chapel
was dedicated on the Marquette Campus on May 26,
1966.
For more information on the St. Joan of Arc Chapel click here.
Good Friday,
Easter Sunday, Memorial Day Weekend, 4th
of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Weekend,
Christmas Eve and Day through New Years.
(If the University is closed, Chapel is
too).
To
schedule tours, call the Campus Ministry
office at (414) 288- 6873.
Tours last about 1/2 hour. No charge for tour,
but donations are accepted. NO WEDDINGS
OR BAPTISMS ARE HELD AT THE CHAPEL!
