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In the late 2000s, the land where the old Art Barn had just been knocked down was being cleared. The buzz of construction workers and facility staff members sounded in the clearing right next to Old Main as the foundation was being prepared for a brand new building: Regents Hall of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. 

It was then that a curious brown and black object was found embedded in the dirt. It was light, had no clear markings, and looked quite discolored. One might have assumed that it was just a fallen piece of tree trunk that had somehow managed to burrow itself underneath the Art Barn. However, a wooden structure once stood where the old Art Barn had been and where Regents Hall was now being constructed. It turned out that the object found embedded in the dirt was actually a charred piece of that building: Hoyme Chapel. 

What is the story of Hoyme Chapel, and how did a small piece of it end up in the St. Olaf College Archives more than 80 years after it last stood?

Construction on Hoyme Memorial Chapel was completed in 1906. The namesake of the chapel was Rev. Gjermund Hoyme, who was the first president of the United Norwegian Lutheran Church and a rival of St. Olaf’s first president, Thorbjorn N. Mohn. 

Hoyme Chapel was intended to be the center of spiritual life on campus. One of its most distinct features was a stained glass window, donated by the alumni association in honor of Professor Halvor Ytterboe, a faculty member who taught economics, physiology, commercial law, geography, didactics, English grammar, and civil government. He had passed away in 1904 after 24 years of service to the college. 

On the stained glass window, the city of Bethlehem was portrayed with a star shining above it. The biblical verse “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth” was inscribed underneath it. There were two levels in the chapel, which allowed the audience to have multiple viewpoints of the altar. The chapel was used for music recitals, college gatherings, daily chapel, and Sunday services. Evelyn Ytterboe Tetlie, the daughter of Halvor, said “Hoyme Chapel was not a beautiful building, but it met the needs of the college.”

That is why it was thoroughly devastating to the campus community when word began ringing out on September 22, 1923, that the chapel was on fire. The fall semester was in full swing on that day, and nobody was present in the chapel when the fire started near lunchtime. The alarm was sounded when two faculty members exited Old Main and noticed the evidence of trouble rising up above the chapel. 

Students and faculty rushed from their lunchtime meals and meetings to save objects in the chapel, and stood by with buckets of water to protect Steensland and Old Main. Evelyn Ytterboe marveled at six students carrying a grand piano out of the burning chapel.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of a fire hydrant or water system that the firefighters could tap into, the fire could not be contained. Hoyme Chapel slowly disappeared into the smoke of the past. 

The cause of the fire was never officially confirmed.

A century later, there are thankfully all sorts of fire-retardants and preventive methods present in every building on campus, from Old Main to New Hall. 

When the chapel burned down, the stained glass was lost to the flames. With no other chapel on campus at the time, it seemed as if there would be no way to have it replaced. Elise A. Kittelsby Ytterboe, Halvor’s wife, sought to have the donation honored in some manner. In her will, she asked her daughter Evelyn to replace the stained glass one day. Unfortunately, Elise passed a decade before she could see her wish fulfilled. 

Construction on Boe Memorial Chapel was completed in 1954. In one of the central stained glass windows, one can see a replica of the original Hoyme Chapel ‘Bethlehem’ stained glass piece.

A stone from Hoyme Chapel is embedded in an exterior wall of Boe Memorial Chapel, at the base of the bell tower. In 1932, the Art Barn was erected a few meters from where Hoyme Chapel had stood. Before Boe was built, the current Theater Building (at that time the gymnasium) hosted all college activities that had previously taken place in Hoyme.

And so all indications of Hoyme Chapel’s presence on campus was buried — until the 21st century, when a little segment of burned wood was unearthed.

When that piece of Hoyme Chapel was found, College Archives immediately moved it into their care. It now sits enclosed in transparent archival plastic, a remainder in the fraction of physical college history.