Is Washington and Lee Poor? (1930)

[The following is pulled from an article published in The News and Advance in 1930. The article condemns the chapel entrance fee and argues the chapel should remain free for all. For more information, please see the full article on Newspapers.com].

(Lee Chapel | Source: W&L Spectator)

According to the Petersburg Progress Index, those wishing to visit the Robert E. Lee memorial chapel at Washington and Lee University, which shelters the immortal ashes of the Confederate leader, must pay a fee of 25 cents upon entering. The front entrance from the campus of the institution is closed and visitors must enter through the museum on the lower level. Posted on the chapel door is this notice: 

By order of the board of trustees, a 25 cent fee is collected for admissions to chapel and museum. This charge is necessary to defray expenses of guardianship and janitor services imposed by the increasing number of visitors. The following persons are exempt from this charge: Veterans of the War Between the States, professors, officers, students, and alumni of Washington and Lee and the Virginia Military Institute. 

It is regrettable that the trustees of the Lexington institution have inaugurated a policy which has been discussed from time to time in the past and which has found serious opposition among both alumni and friends of Washington and Lee as well as many who revere the memory of General Lee. The doors of the chapel should always be open without charge to the thousands who annually visit this sacred shrine of the south. The imposition of a small fee suggests, as the Progress Index declares, “commercialism closely akin to sacrilege.”

 Heretofore a small receptacle has been available to receive the voluntary gifts which many visitors willing give to help bear the cost of keeping the building open. Evidently the expenses, which include the services of a custodian, are far more than is obtained by voluntary contributions, and therefore the charging of a fee was regarded as necessary to provide adequate upkeep. 

Few educational institutions in this nation possess the heritage of Washington and Lee. The association with two of the nation’s greatest men is an honor which no other university or college can claim. Washington’s endowment and Lee’s years of service as president are priceless assets of the institution. Why should a university with this heritage require visitors to the chapel to pay to “stand before the crypt holding the dust of Lee or look upon Valentine’s recumbent figure of the great soldier?” 

Washington and Lee should appeal to the world to come and visit this simple little chapel, and stand inspired at this “holiest of Virginia shrines.” The university cannot be so poor that it must require a price before the thousands of pilgrims, who annually visit the tomb, can enter the doors of the chapel.