In 1920 a fire consumed Princeton's Marquand Chapel, prompting a fundraising effort to support the chapel's reconstruction. The $2.5 million raised exceeded the Trustees' initial expectations, prompting plans for a larger structure to reflect the growing nature of the campus. The famous architecture firm Cram and Ferguson of Boston was selected for the project, which was completed in 1928.

Chief architect Ralph Adams Cram was a leading architect of Gothic revival and had been the University's consulting architect since 1907. It was under his supervision that the collegiate Gothic architecture style for which Princeton is famous flourished. In addition to the chapel, Cram designed Campbell Hall, McCormick Hall, and the Graduate College.

In 1991, a 96-year-old artist who had worked on the chapel revealed that he had carved his head and the head of his boss, Ralph Adams Cram, on either side of the chapel's main entrance. Cram, on the right of the entrance, is easily identified by the glasses.

(Adapted from "Ralph Adams Cram" and A Princeton Companion.)