On Campus
Taking vows at Rutgers’ Kirkpatrick Chapel
There are the animal stories. Drinkwater recalls playing at a half a dozen or more weddings over the years that included a family dog, sometimes serving as a ring bearer. (This practice is no longer permitted, said Cogan, who sometimes must assert practicality over romanticism as manager of the 133-year-old building. He recently vetoed a couple’s request to release thousands of butterflies into the chapel immediately following recitation of the vows. “Who would clean up all those dead butterflies?”)
Listed within Queen’s College on the national and New Jersey registers of historic places, the chapel is not air-conditioned. This is in part for fear of damaging the 3,300-pipe Aeolian Skinner organ, designed for the chapel and custom built in 1917; or the 22 richly framed oil portraits of Rutgers founders and dignitaries (including one woman, Sophia Astley Kirkpatrick, the chapel’s original benefactor and namesake) that line the chapel’s Rutgers-red walls. On hot summer days, the massive, wood side doors on either side of the altar are thrown open, inviting the occasional four-legged or winged wedding crasher. Once a frisky squirrel leaped from one of the brass chandeliers to the floor and scampered between the guests’ feet down the length of the building.
Music requests have evolved with the times, Drinkwater said. “The Wagner wedding march, the Mendelssohn bridal march – those sounded magnificent on that organ,” in large part due to the lush acoustics produced by reverberations from the 36-foot-high, vaulted wood ceiling. But occasionally, in the 1960s and 1970s, the organist had to reject “wild, rhythmic things that wouldn’t be suitable” for the organ, which is still tuned in turn-of-the-century style.
Cogan forecasts no decline in wedding requests at Kirkpatrick, which charges $600 per ceremony and turned a $20,000 profit last year. The income will help fund a needed $1.5 million restoration of the original stained glass windows (including three by the famed Tiffany Studios). Additional money is needed to install handicapped-accessible bathrooms.
Cogan is delighted that the wedding business helps to raise money for the upkeep of this architectural gem on the Rutgers-New Brunswick Campus. Besides, Cogan, a trained actor whose credits include Father Mark in the off-Broadway show “Tony n’ Tina's Wedding,” Daddy Warbucks in the national tour of “Annie,” and Harold Nichols in the national tour of “The Full Monty,” enjoys playing wedding planner. “Who’s got a better job than I do, helping people get married?”
To view chapel photos or find information about hosting an event, visit www.kirkpatrickchapel.rutgers.edu.