Marsh laid out the University of Redlands master plan c. 1908, and created a long quadrangle with two central focal points on each narrow end. At one end, stood Marsh's Administration Building; the architect satisfied his clients, the American Baptist Convention, by placing a chapel at the opposite end, symbolizing the centrality of faith at the University of Redlands. The school sought to instill in students awareness and social conscience, and to steer them away from materialism and ostentation. This emphasis on enlightened, compassionate humanitarianism fit the Progressive Era, as did its distaste for extravagance. An early mission statement said: "The University of Redlands aims to mould the mind and the heart so that in the conflict of life, keenness and conscience shall go forth together. It seeks to impress its pupils with the idea that making men is more important than making money; that it is better to live a life than make a living." (See "About Redlands: History,"Accessed 12/19/2013.)

Architect Norman Foote Marsh (1871-1955) seems to have modeled the Memorial Chapel on 18th century Baptist churches in the Colonial US. These churches often had projecting porticoes and spires located near or above the narthex. These American churches, in turn, were frequently simplified versions of 17th-century English churches, most notably those by the architect/mathematician Christopher Wren. Wren was influenced by Palladian models brought into England by Inigo Jones. Marsh composed the Redlands chapel from two intersecting rectangles their long axes perpendicular. A Classical portico projected from the front end of the larger rectangle and its contours matched those of the gable roof covering the majority of the church. The portico had a triangular pediment whose tympanum was decorated with carved ornamentation and two shields; It six supporting columns had Ionic capitals. Just behind the portico, Marsh positioned the other smaller and lower rectangle symmetrically.

PCAD id: 18942