UD’s Chapel of the Immaculate Conception: A sanctuary for 150 years

An early photograph of the interior of the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception captures the ornate beauty within the centerpiece of the University of Dayton campus.

The black-and-white photograph shows a large crowd gathered for College Day on Dec. 11, 1918. Under a large veil draped over the center alter, His Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons officiates.

Construction of the chapel began in 1867. The original bricklayers built 22-inch walls and six chimneys. By the next year workers had raised a roof over the chapel.

Originally, the sanctuary was designed with a simple arch and communion rail. The altar and tabernacle were made of marble. In the 1870s, side altars and the stations of the cross were added as well as a coal-burning stove described to be so large it nearly filled the space inside the chapel.

Artists painted murals on the interior walls and a depiction of the Coronation of Mary on the ceiling in the late 1800s, but over the years the murals were painted over or lost in renovations.

A $12 million, 14-month-long renovation of the historic chapel was completed in 2015.

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