Gendell was an apprentice of Thomas U. Walter and also a Baptist. His compact cross-gabled brick chapel emphasizes the triangular planes of the hipped roof and horizontal brownstone bands of varying widths follow the angles of the brick walls very much in the manner of Frank Furness with whose work Gendell's was often confused in the 1870s. The interior has been altered several times, and since 1988 has housed the Stadler Center for Poetry.