Like the University of Pennsylvania and Haverford College, Quaker-influenced Bryn Mawr did not have that sine qua non of early-twentieth-century campuses—a chapel. The stand-in, recalling Penn's contemporary Irvine Auditorium (
PH147.7), is this auditorium, a remarkable blend of Moderne and French Gothic designed and constructed as George Howe was departing the firm. Perhaps he was distressed about the Gothic Revival features and pointed arches that belie the modern reinforced concrete construction. Massive oak timbers span between the arches to carry the roof. The entrance is enlivened by the intricacy of Samuel Yellin's ironwork in the great medieval-inspired doors. He was also

responsible for the Hollywoodesque chandeliers of the main hall and the wrought-iron lanterns of the interior. Katharine Hepburn's theater career began in this acoustically difficult but architecturally romantic hall. In 2008 Finegold Alexander + Associates were commissioned to rethink the failed theater by inserting a blackbox theater between the stage and the rear music wing.