Welcome to Kansas!
Over thirty DAR state societies maintain a state or period room at National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Kansas Room began as a committee room, in the basement of the Administration Building, as early as 1936. When the room was relocated to the third floor in 1947, it assumed the dual use of a storage room and a prayer room for the Chaplain General.
Roberta Cooke Kilbourne (1959-1962) chose as her State Regent's project the refurbishing of the Kansas Room. Mrs. Kilbourn had seen the beautiful Sargent Chapel at the Central Congregational Church in Topeka and believed that a reduced-scale replica would make a beautiful room.
The Kansas Chapel was dedicated on Palm Sunday 1962, at a cost of more than $8,500. All funds had been raised by the time of dedication.
The sunflower windows, brilliant images of the Kansas state flower, were assembled from twelve stained glass panels removed during the 1967 remodeling of the Carnegie Library in Wichita. They were dedicated at the 76th Continental Congress on April 22, 1967. The windows originally graced the back of the chapel.
Kansas' new room at Headquarters saw varied usage: a vespers meditation hour was held each year during Continental Congress, the NSDAR Executive Board often met in the chapel before sessions, and employees frequently began their workday there, with a time of quiet and reflection.
As the years passed, and space demands at National increased, it became evident that a new location was needed. In 2003, the Kansas Chapel was relocated to an area of the building called the Stone Hall. The photos below show the newly-arranged chapel:
From the balcony above, the chapel offers a peaceful oasis.
Access on one side of the chapel is from these imposing marble steps.
Approaching the altar, gifts from many Kansas Daughters come into view.
The new design of the Kansas Chapel has the
striking sunflower windows on either side of the altar.
At the rear of the chapel is a doorway leading out
into another area of the Headquarters buildings.
Entering from this doorway, the first view is of
the altar, banked by the back-lit sunflower windows.
In its new location, the Kansas Chapel is infinitely more
accessible, and offers a lovely place for meditation and prayer.
The DAR Insignia is the property of, and is copyrighted by, the
National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.