Next to John C. Green, Henry Gurdon Marquand was the College's most generous benefactor during the McCosh period. Henry Marquand had helped to underwrite the first building of McCosh's administration, the Bonner-Marquand Gymnasium , and McCosh sought the assistance of this New York financier when it came time to erect a new chapel that befitted Princeton's emergence as an institution of national stature.

John Notman's 1846 chapel had served the College well, but this building could hold only 325 people. Even with a three-bay extension of the nave, this structure was too small as the College expanded during the 1870s. By 1880, planning for a new chapel was well underway.