1742, June 2. Foundation of the Chapel Laid Some part of ye begin’g of this month.
Aug. 18. this day I was Admitted into Harvard College.
Dec. 18–20. Sometime this part of the month, the brick-work of the chapel was finish.
1743. Feb. 19. The Slates for the chapel were begun to be cut in order to be put on it.
Mar. 4. Last night Late they begun to slate Chapel.
Mar. 7. The workmen at ye Chapel didn’t come up till ye next day.
Mar. 12. Ye workmen went down from ye chapple & returnd on Moonday following.
Mar. 28. Workmen were not up all day.
May 31. Finishd Plais[tlering Chappel.
1744. Feb. 26. Workmen came to finish the Chappel.[1]
It thus appears that although the foundations, walls, roofing, and plastering were all completed within a year, almost another year elapsed before the final touches were given to the fabric. This may have been due to delays in securing the glass, hardware, carvings, etc., from England, or to the exhaustion of the original building fund, and a further application to Mrs. Holden. for the needful wherewithal. The latter is the more probable, since the tradition runs that she originally expressed surprise that so small a sum as £400 should be considered sufficient. When at last it was finished, however, the College boasted a building the like of which had never been seen in the vicinity before.
Its style was neither the pseudo-Dutch of the first
- ↑ Dow, The Holyoke Diaries, 32 ſſ.
