There can be no doubt that McCosh and Marquand saw the new chapel as an opportunity to make both a religious and institutional statement. According to a letter written to his father by Allan Marquand, Class of 1877, McCosh boasted that the tower on the new chapel should "be as high as the Tower of Babel, so as to be seen from the railroad." In the end, the tower measured only 104 feet -- not as tall as the clock tower on the John C. Green School of Science but nonetheless impressive.