McCosh's opportunity to erect a new chapel came in 1881, when the New York financier Henry G. Marquand (father of Allen Marquand, Class of 1874) agreed to underwrite the project. The College had long outgrown the old Chapel and needed a new space in keeping with its reputation as an evangelical stronghold. (This was not popular with everyone -- the Columbia student newspaper derided Princeton as being dedicated to "muscular Christianity," and a significant proportion of the Princeton student body was Episcopalian.)

Fittingly, Marquand Chapel was the architectural summit of McCosh's career.