Middlebury Chapel sits atop the highest point of campus, and is home to student performances, guest lecturers, religious services, and annual events like Convocation and Baccalaureate. Over the years, it has welcomed Academy Award winners, Nobel laureates, and pillars of art, business, and science for discussions, readings, and panels.
While inside, on campus, or in town, you’ll often hear songs, including operas, the Alma Mater, and contemporary pop songs, pour out of the 48-bell carillon that sits atop the chapel. This is no recording. The campus carillonneur plays the instrument by hand almost every day with help from students, who can take lessons for free.
The epitaph “The Strength of the Hills Is His Also” spans the chapel’s Greek Revival marble front, but the word “His” is often changed in student art and publications to “Hers,” “Ours,” etc., to reflect our continuous strides towards inclusivity.
Once named for a former governor of Vermont, John Mead (a member of the Middlebury Class of 1864), the chapel was renamed in 2021 because of Mead’s role in advancing eugenics policy in the early 20th century.
More on the renaming can be read here.
75 Hepburn Rd.
Middlebury, VT 05753