"Memorializing Men of the Lost Cause: Public Opinion of Confederate Monuments in Virginia 1900-Present"

Lee Chapel was a major place of importance for Virginia during the Civil War Centennial. The chapel had been approved for restoration through a grant from the Ford Motor Company. Nothing about the chapel had been changed since it was built in 1868. The wooden trusses were starting to sag and could no longer support the weight of the roof. If Washington and Lee would want to continue to have people visit the chapel it would need to be updated.

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The chapel and the statue inside were described by alumni of the university as the "most honorable monument of all [to] the memory of [Lee}." The chapel would also the site of the opening of the Centennial with a joint ceremony being held at Grant's grave in New York. Lexington and the Washington and Lee campus would see many visitors over the course of the four years of celebrations.