Silence has filled the Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel for nearly a decade. Plants are growing from the inside out, parts of the building are crumbling and there is dirt and debris on the floor.
Limited space forced the Chapel to move Sunday services to Cramton Auditorium in 1996, according to the Dean of the Chapel Bernard Richardson, Ph.D. However, the historic building continued to be a gathering place for students and faculty until 2017. While some long to reopen it, funding is holding renovations back.
“The Chapel [has] always been a safe place and a sanctuary space where students, staff and faculty felt safe,” Richardson said.
Built in 1894-95, the Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel served Howard University for a century with Sunday services and community events. In 1996, those events were moved to Cramton Auditorium as the Chapel comfortably seats about 300 people compared to Cramton seating around 1,500 people according to Richardson.
The Chapel continued to host smaller-scale events including weddings, funerals and student group meetings until 2017, according to Cynthia Rodwell, the Chapel’s director of administration and operations.
Andrew Rankin, the namesake of the Chapel, was the brother of former University President Jeremiah Rankin. The building was named after Rankin in 1886, after his widowed wife contributed $5,000 to the building fund. The building has hosted speakers including Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass, according to Richardson.
From its home in Cramton, the Chapel has hosted programs including the Social Justice Tutor Program, Howard University Day of Service and Alternative Spring Break.
With the growth of programming, a move to the biggest venue on campus was necessary, said Richardson, who has worked at the university since 1993 and earned his bachelor’s degree from Howard in 1975.
Jennifer Thomas, associate professor in the department of Media, Journalism and Film, worked under former Dean of the Chapel Evans Crawford during her junior and senior year at Howard as an assistant greeting people as they walked in.
Thomas, who graduated from Howard in 1988, recalled the Chapel as a sacred place where one could surround themself with history.
She said the lack of space in the building during her years at Howard never occurred to her as an issue.
“It just meant if you were trying to get to the Chapel, you’d need to get there early so you’d have a place to sit,” said Thomas.
However, limited space in the Chapel was only one factor behind the closure.
The building also had structural issues according to Derek Niec-Williams, the assistant vice president of planning and architecture.
“The wooden structure of the building and the integrity of the wood was a concern,” he said.
Niec-Williams also noted that the facility had no air conditioning and was not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
“If you were a wheelchair user and you needed to use the restroom in that building, there is no appropriate place for you to do so,” he said.
Niec-Williams said that when the Chapel was built, ADA laws were not yet in place. As a result, there was no ramp connecting to the lower level of the building or space in the bathroom for a wheelchair.
He added that restoration of the building would be difficult because of its status as a national historic landmark. Due to this status, it cannot be altered or significantly modified without federal approval. If restoration begins, the work must preserve the historic character, materials and design of the building, according to the United States Department of the Interior.
Conversations about expansion and modernization have occurred, but they are required to follow the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, making the process intensive.
“There is a will and there is a definite ability [but] there is a lack of capital to do that,” Niec-Williams said.
He said renovating the chapel while preserving its historical presence would be costly, around $25 million.
Cliftavion Davis, a junior biology major from Grand Junction, Tennessee and vice president of the Howard University Chapel Assistants said he would love to see the Chapel active again.
“Students of Howard University should have those opportunities that could be life changing and very impactful,” he said.
Both Richardson and Niec-Williams confirmed that the reconstruction of the Chapel is heavily supported by faculty and administration.
“The renovation of the Chapel is included and is already approved as a project in the Master Plan. So there’s no reason why we can’t go forward with it, right? There’s very few hurdles.” Niec-Williams said.
“I think it’s time,” Richardson added.
Copy edited by Jori Johnson
The print edition of this article published on Oct. 13, 2026 incorrectly stated the closure year of the Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel. The online version of this article was updated to correct the errors on Oct. 29, 2026.
