The Catherine McAuley Heritage Chapel, named in honor of the foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, was originally Lakewood’s first Catholic church, built in 1890 and located in town. When the parish, St. Mary’s of the Lake, decided to build a new house of worship, the pastor donated the old church building to the campus.

Placed ingeniously on pallets, the chapel was pulled by a team of horses across the fields of Lakewood in 1924 to its current site at the north point of the Raymond Hall Complex.

The lawn area in front of the McAuley Heritage Chapel has be re-landscaped to include a seating area. Central to the seating area, on a pedestal, is a bronze of Sister Catherine McAuley.