Knowles Chapel on the Rollins College Campus is a beautiful structure. My advanced Urban Sketching student agreed to meet her to sketch. This largely became a lesson in one point perspective and I pointed out to the student that the red sculpture that was a block down the sidewalk was the vanishing point. For this reason I included the red sculpture in my sketch. The other lesson was that the Chapel did not need to be in the middle of the sketch. A large tree dominated the center of my sketch and I went with it, relegating the chapel to the background.
The campus had expanded since I sketched here last. I used to park down by the Rollins Museum but that parking lot was demolished to make way for another building. I had to drive several more blocks to park in a parking garage. By the time I hikes my way back to the chapel I was a sweaty mess but at least I am getting some exercise.
Construction on the chapel began on March 1931 and it was dedicated on March 19, 1932. At that time it was located in the center of the campus. The architect of the chapel was the famous ecclesiastical architect, Ralph Adams Cram of the firm of Cram and Ferguson of Boston. Cram also designed the Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. St. John the Divine opened in 1941 and thus didn’t make my list of the 50 oldest churches of NYC. Knowles is actually a rather modern building compared to the historic churches I sketched in NYC.
