Goodbye to a Chapel Tradition

Photos by Sally Li ’29

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Chloe Lee ’27

How well do students of Northfield Mount Hermon know the most-visited building on campus? The NMH community, even with our diverse schedules, inevitably unites at the beginning of every academic week at the Memorial Chapel. What the passersby and the congregation do not generally notice in such a frequented location, however, is the tower located at its corner.

Until recently, the tower was the location for a graduating class tradition: climbing the chapel tower on graduation morning.

“It was started by a former English teacher and dean of faculty named Hugh Silbaugh,” said Charles Tierney III, Associate Head of School. He took over the tradition after Silbaugh’s passing.

Later, fellow faculty members Gregory Leeds and TJ Farmer joined Silbaugh in solidifying the trips into a senior tradition. Graduating students were taken in small groups up the tower. he staircase couldn’t support large numbers. It took a total of two hours for all interested seniors to make their journey up and down.

Seniors were not mandated to make the chapel trip. “It wasn’t forced fun,” said Tierney, Last year, however, the stairs in the tower were deemed unsafe for anyone other than plant facilities workers, allowing none to enter the chapel towers except for repair purposes. According to Tierney, the stairs were never designed for frequent use. They were instead built for workers to access different levels of the tower, as well as to execute tasks such as setting the clock or ringing the bell.

“Every year we were pushing our luck,” said Tierney, who enjoyed the students' excitement to get a bird’s-eye view of the campus that they had spent years walking up and down. Meanwhile, he was also aware that the continuation of the tower-climbing tradition depended on how many people could climb up in the time they had.

“All ascending and descending luckily were as far as we know done safely, but some might describe the stairs as a bit precarious,” Tierney said.

Due to the sudden safety warning, the three faculty members shifted the tower climb to a dawn gathering with coffee and donuts in front of the chapel, making the Class of 2024 the last to set foot on the roof. Although future graduating classes can no longer view the beloved campus from the tower, the sunrise viewing, accompanied by coffee and donuts, may have been a rather fruitful, all-encompassing activity.