An alleged Al Capone speakeasy. The grave of the inventor of the typewriter. The oldest certified 10-pin bowling alley in the United States. Are any of the historic oddities that Milwaukee has collected as odd as the genuine 15th century French chapel tucked away on Marquette’s campus?
Architecturally, the gothic St. Joan of Arc Chapel seems immediately out of place, nesting demurely between more contemporary construction on the Jesuit campus. However, since its arrival to Marquette in the 1960s it has quietly blended into school culture, serving as a site of religious respite, historic inquiry and cultural wayfinding.
The chapel was purchased by Great Northern Railway heiress Gertrude Hill Gavin, reconstructed on her Long Island estate in the 1920s then later sold to the Rojtmans, a family of tractor magnates. The estate was severely damaged by fire mere days before the Rojtmans were to move in, leaving scarcely anything but the chapel unharmed. Marc B Rojtman donated the chapel to Marquette, where it was moved and reconstructed once more in 1964.
The tale of the “walking chapel” has been told for generations in its home of Chasse-sur-Rhône, France, a small town about 30 minutes south of Lyon on the Rhône River. “It’s a story that all of us know,” says village cultural director, Damien Gomez. A century since the chapel’s departure from Europe, residents of Chasse-sur-Rhône seek to reconnect with the only heritage site from within their village bounds. A cultural history project launched by the French hamlet brought a group of 12 students and a handful of city officials, historians and educators to the U.S. last autumn. Their voyage traced the path of the chapel from New York to Minneapolis and Milwaukee and will culminate in the release of a documentary regaling their findings…