Auburn University Chapel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Auburn University Chapel is a structure on the National Register of Historic Places and is the oldest building in its original location in Auburn, Alabama. The chapel was built in 1851 as a Presbyterian church in the Greek Revival style. During the Civil War, the building briefly served as a Confederate hospital for wounded soldiers, and later in the century was temporarily divided into classrooms when the main building of the nearby Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College burned in 1887.
Around 1900, the church was renovated in a Gothic style. The building was sold to the college in 1921, where it became the YMCA/YWCA center for a few years. From 1927 to 1973, it housed the Auburn Players Theater, the college's acting troupe. Between 1973 and 1976, the structure underwent a significant renovation for conversion to the Auburn University Chapel, an interdenominational, multipurpose building, a function it still serves today.
The Auburn University Chapel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 22, 1973, and is located at the intersection of College Street and Thatch Avenue in downtown Auburn.
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[edit] Legends
Legend states that the building was haunted by "Sydney", the ghost of an Englishman and Confederate soldier who died in the chapel during the time it served as a hospital. When the building became a theater, the ghost supposedly began haunting the acting troupe because of his displeasure with the Southern accents of the actors performing an English play. When the troupe moved to a new facility elsewhere on the Auburn campus, the ghost followed, and is now reported to haunt the Telfair Peet Theatre.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Historic Chattahoochee Commission and Auburn Heritage Association (1994). Auburn University Chapel. Historic Marker. Located 139 South College Street, Auburn, Ala.
- Logue, Mickey & Simms, Jack (1996). Auburn: A Pictorial History of the Loveliest Village, Revised. Auburn, Ala. ISBN 1-885860-08-0
- Windham, Kathryn Tucker (1982). Jeffrey's Latest 13: More Alabama Ghosts. Tuscaloosa, Ala., University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-0380-4
