ATLANTA (Feb. 21, 2007) – A groundbreaking ceremony for the Julia Thompson Smith Chapel – the first freestanding chapel in Agnes Scott College’s 118-year history – will be held at 10:45 a.m., Wednesday, Feb. 21 on the north side of the science quadrangle.
“This is a wonderful moment in the college's history. The Julia Thompson Smith Chapel will provide a focal point for spiritual life on campus as well as a gathering place for community celebration, mourning and deliberation,” said Elizabeth Kiss, president of Agnes Scott College. “It will also be a new architectural gem for our campus and the larger Decatur and Atlanta community.”
A Christian chapel welcoming people of all faiths, it will be named for the late Julia Thompson Smith, a 1931 graduate of Agnes Scott and wife of the late Hal Smith, long-time chair of the college's board of trustees.
“The Julia Thompson Smith chapel is a milestone in the continuing love story between Hal Smith, the Smith family and Agnes Scott College,” said Gué Hudson, vice president for student life and community relations/dean of students. “Hal Smith was a devout and generous man who has been an important benefactor of our college. His regard for Agnes Scott grew from his respect and admiration for his wife, an alumna, and her family.”
The Smith family made more formal its relationship with Agnes Scott College in 1952 when Hal Smith was first elected to the board of trustees. Four years later he was elected board chair, a post he held until 1973.
Thompson family involvement with the college dates back to the 1930s or perhaps earlier. Dr. William Taliaferro Thompson, Julia Thompson Smith's father, a Presbyterian minister and professor of Christian education at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, spoke several times at Agnes Scott over the years.
Six women from the Thompson family attended Agnes Scott, beginning with Julia Thompson in the late 1920s, and continuing through the 1960s. In addition, Hal and Julia Smith's son John E. Smith II also served on the board of trustees in the 1980s and 1990s. Both Hal Smith and his son served as president of the John Smith Co. in Smyrna, one of Atlanta's major automobile dealerships.
“In addition to the new chapel, Hal Smith gave the gift of his time as a trustee, made an endowed professorship in economics possible and created the Julia Thompson Smith Chaplaincy,” Dean Hudson added. “His son, John Smith II, continues this family legacy with his involvement at the college. We are extremely grateful for this relationship of such long standing.”
The chapel's contemporary gothic design was created by Maurice Jennings + David McKee Architects of Fayetteville, Ark. Jennings and McKee uphold the principles of "organic architecture" as espoused by Fay Jones and his architectural mentor Frank Lloyd Wright.
One of Jones' best-known designs, Thorncrown Chapel in West Eureka Springs, Ark., set an architectural precedent now championed by successor firm Jennings + McKee. Agnes Scott's Julia Thompson Smith Chapel is distinctive among six recent Jennings + McKee chapel creations for its brick-and-mortar design reflecting the primary building material on the college's 100-acre campus. The use of brick represents a departure from the floor-to-ceiling glass walls and wood beams featured in the firm’s other chapel designs.
The Julia Thompson Smith Chapel interior plans feature seating for approximately 100 people, a multi-faith meditation room to accommodate about 20, restrooms and storage space. It will be built on a sloping site between the Alston Campus Center and Mary Brown Bullock Science Center once home to the college’s Snodgrass Amphitheatre and May Day Dell. A distinctive landscaped garden surrounding the chapel will provide vistas and spaces for gathering and meditation.
The chapel will welcome people for worship services, meditation and prayer, small Bible study groups and other religious study. Additional uses might include occasional lectures and intimate concerts. The Brombaugh Opus 31 d organ, moved from the college's old Thatcher Chapel in the original Alston Campus Center, will provide music for the new chapel.
Another surviving detail of the Thatcher Chapel, a nine-panel, jewel-colored stained-glass window, was given to the college by the class of 1952 in honor of Wallace M. Alston, the college's third president. The window designed by Joseph V. Llorens will provide a striking accent among the chapel's clear glass.
A lead gift for the estimated $6 million chapel was provided by The Hal and John Smith Family Foundation. College Trustee Jim Philips and wife Donna Philips made the lead gift for the gardens, which will be named in honor of his parents Davison Philips and Kay Philips, a 1943 Agnes Scott graduate.
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