Crypt

The crypt is located beneath the Memorial Chapel. It is accessed by a stairwell on the front wall of the nave, between the Memorial Chapel and the lectern. The crypt is built in the Romanesque style, with heavy, rounded vaulting. Location of a Romanesque crypt below the Memorial Chapel imitates the tradition by which medieval Gothic cathedrals often were built on the foundations of older Roman buildings. The crypt has an altar, seats about 30 people, and is used for prayer meetings and Bible studies.

The crypt was added to the plans for the Chapel at the same time as the Memorial Chapel and was intended as a burial place for other members of the Duke family and prominent persons identified with the University. Beneath the floor of the crypt are buried William Preston Few, the last president of Trinity College and the first president of Duke University; Nanaline Holt Duke, wife of James B. Duke; Julian Deryl Hart, fourth president of Duke University, and his wife, Mary Hart; and Terry Sanford, sixth president of Duke University, Governor of North Carolina, and United States Senator. Also interred here are the ashes of James A. Thomas, chairman of the Duke Memorial Association, and of James T. Cleland, former Dean of Duke Chapel, and his wife, Alice M. Cleland. Brass plaques in the crypt memorialize the University’s other deceased presidents, Robert Flowers and Hollis Edens.

You can learn more these parts of the Chapel by clicking on the corresponding image: