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When four-sided scaffolding, 176 feet tall, went up around Cochran Chapel in June, it seemed as if the stately 1932 Georgian Revival structure might be in for a long siege of repair. The site became an instant anthill of activity: Workmen swarmed in and out and up and down the sides of the brick structure, and vehicles representing every trade lined Chapel Avenue.

But when faculty and students returned to campus in September, the scaffolding was gone, and a better, brighter, somehow younger-looking structure was revealed. In fewer than 60 days,the time allotted between Alumni Weekend and the reopening of school for the fall term, Cochran Chapel was transformed. Outside, subtle improvements make the venerable structure glow: Copper gutters and tower woodwork have been replaced, the slate roof has been repaired and the weather vane gilded with fresh gold. Inside, the change is more profound: Energy-efficient windows have been installed, as have a new heating system, a new sound system and a handicapped-accessible elevator. Basement-level offices, classrooms and worship spaces have been stripped and renovated floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall and are now bright and appealing. Crowning the entire effort is a new 180-seat balcony constructed, seemingly overnight, in the rear of the sanctuary. Blending seamlessly with the original carved oak woodwork, the new balcony increases seating capacity to accommodate all students for all-school meetings, performances and lectures and reestablishes the hallowed hall as the center of community life at Andover.

In October, the community gathered to celebrate the $5.2 million transformation of the chapel and to pay tribute to the man who made it possible, Board of Trustees President David M. Underwood '54. A portion of Underwood's $10 million gift to the school financed much of the work.

"Tonight our chapel angels look down from the columns as they have looked down upon many another gathering," said Head of School Barbara Chase in her rededication speech. "For 66 years they have witnessed scenes of worship and celebration, of sorrow and happiness. They represent for me (to use Abraham Lincoln's words) 'the better angels of our nature.' Tonight, they smile with us as we celebrate their home, a newly refurbished Cochran Chapel."

Faculty, trustees and students took part in the rededication of the chapel, which, besides being the gathering place for all-school meetings, is also home to the school's chaplaincy and student religious organizations, the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, choral and orchestral groups, the Community Service Program and the Phillips/Andover/Leonard School Program (PALS).

The ceremony was marked by ecumenical prayer, meditation and reflection and by music from the Phillips Academy Symphony Orchestra. For many, the culmination of the event was a clear, sweet, soaring performance of "Bless This House" by PA Gospel Choir soloist Charlene Sadberry '99, accompanied on piano by Donnell Patterson. The ceremony concluded with a benediction, the lighting of candles and the uplifting peal of chapel bells as celebrants poured out into the night.

Characteristically modest, Underwood downplayed a comparison between his contribution to the school and the generosity of Thomas Cochran, Class of 1890, who built the chapel in 1932.  Underwood thanked the planners, workmen and artisans for their roles in the renovation. "I hope you are as thrilled with the result as am I. . . . It is a joy tonight to see what patience, planning, artistry and love of this place have accomplished," he said.