Editorial: Unused for 20 years, Old Chapel at UMass finally getting deserved attention

As multi-million dollar fancy new buildings have popped up all around the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in recent years, one small building overlooking the Campus Pond has been crying for attention. After 20 years, that cry is finally being answered.



UMass officials are moving ahead with plans to dump a whopping $21 million into restoring Old Chapel, an unofficial symbol of the state’s flagship campus whose Gothic-style architecture and signature clock tower has graced magazine covers and other promotional materials over the years. Yet for nearly two decades the iconic building, built in 1885 as the “New Chapel,” has been locked up and unused — save for a 42-bell carillon that plays three times a day — because of steady deterioration of its interior.



Thankfully, that’s about to change.



In May, the building earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places by the Massachusetts Historical Commission, a well-earned federal designation that recognizes the 129-year-old building’s historic and architectural significance to the campus.



The designation comes two years after Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy, recognizing the bond the building has with thousands of alumni and its potential to create ties with future students, signaled plans to restore it to its early glory.



“It’s time for us to reclaim this as part of our history. Its potential towers like the clock above our heads,” he said at the time.



That potential is promising. After years of neglect, architects are designing a major face-lift for Old Chapel, a two-story building that in its heyday served as a classroom building, library, auditorium and museum.



In a nod to its past history as a gathering spot for discussions and idea swapping, the building is expected to reopen in October 2016 as a multipurpose building two decades after it closed with the departure of the UMass Minuteman Marching Band.



It will be a place for gallery displays, receptions, weddings and formal dinners. The top floor will provide a large open space for performances and lectures. The building will not be used for religious purposes.



UMass is now a modern campus with towering and expansive buildings, so much so that it’s hard to remember that at one point in its history the campus served as an idyllic agricultural college with quaint buildings such as Old Chapel. Letting the building topple, as some fear it was close to doing in the late 1990s before its tower was rebuilt, or wither into disrepair would be a shame given its link to the past.



We’re pleased university officials answered the call before the building slipped past the point of saving. The $21 million price tag, while steep, pales in comparison to the cost of some of the more recent projects — both new and renovations — on the UMass campus. The project is a worthwhile investment to inject life into a building with a rich history on campus.



Let’s hope that the federal historical designation and the upcoming renovation will “revive the beloved UMass emblem,” as Subbaswamy promises.



Old Chapel deserves to continue to serve as a reminder of the rich past of the flagship campus, but its future use where even more memories can be made is just as exciting.





