Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel
An Arkansas Treasure
Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel is a chapel located along Lake Norwood in Bella Vista, Arkansas, designed by E. Fay Jones and Maurice Jennings and constructed in 1988.
The design recalls the Prairie School of architecture popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright, with whom Jones had apprenticed. Jones used 31 tons of steel and 4,460 square feet of glass to create a series of Gothic arches that run the length of the chapel.Though it looks like an open-air structure, the chapel is a glass-enclosed, air-conditioned space.
Soon after completion the chapel was praised that it “quietly commands a dignity and presence uncommon among buildings of our era.”
