1926
Compulsory chapel services for Yale undergraduates ends in 1926 after 225 years. The last required chapel service is held in Battell Chapel on June 5, 1926.
1920s
The final compulsory service in Battell Chapel, June 5th 1926 - photographed from the upper balcony and provided to Yale’s archives by an anonymous donor.
1927
On May 23, 1927, a council of New Haven pastors elected Elmore McKee, pastor of St. Paul’s in New Haven, to be the first full time pastor of the Church of Christ in Yale University, and subsequently the first University Chaplain.
McKee graduated Yale in 1919 and later studied at Yale Divinity School and Berkeley Divinity School. As an undergraduate, McKee was a member of Skull & Bones and chairman of Yale News. McKee left the chaplaincy in December 1930, when he took a position as rector of Trinity Church in Buffalo, NY.
