Kansas University’s beloved Danforth Chapel is getting an $850,000 makeover.

“We think it’s a wonderful spot on the campus and we just want to see that it remains so in the years to come,” said Linda Bliss Stewart, a contributor to the project.

KU is looking to private donors to pay for a 600-square-foot addition to the chapel’s southeast side.

The new space will make way for a bridal dressing room and rest rooms. The makeover also will include new lighting, a new air-conditioning unit, repaired window jambs and new porch timbers.

Work is expected to begin next year.

The chapel, which holds about 90 people, is the site of about 100 weddings a year and a total of 350 annual events.

It was built in the 1940s with the support of William H. Danforth, chairman of the Ralston Purina Co., who brought the idea of a chapel to then-Chancellor Deane Malott. Since its dedication in 1946, the chapel has evolved from a worship site for Christians to a nondenominational site.

For decades, brides have dealt with its modest offerings. There’s a unisex bathroom in the back for a bride to powder her nose before walking down the aisle.

“There’s never been a place for brides to dress,” University Architect Warren Corman said. “They’d have to go over to Fraser Hall and dress across the street. I know a number of mothers of brides who say, ‘That’s sure an awkward way to dress the bride.'”

And there are small things that need updating.

Danforth Chapel

“The organ needs some tuning and fixing up,” Corman said. “The air conditioning is awful noisy and they have to turn it off in the summer when they have a ceremony.”

The lack of luxuries hasn’t kept many from holding fond memories of weddings, christenings and other events in the chapel.

Chet and Patsy Vanatta of Monkey Island, Okla., married there nearly 49 years ago when both were students at KU.

Chet said when he thinks back all those years, he recalls “how lovely my wife was in her wedding gown.”

“It was a long time ago, but it’s still vivid in our minds,” he said.

The Vanattas are among several who already have contributed to the project. Others contributors include Robert Malott of Wilmette, Ill., John T. Stewart III and Linda Bliss Stewart of Wellington, and Gene Fritzel Construction Co. of Lawrence. Others also have contributed for repairs to the roof, damaged in last spring’s microburst storm.

KU has raised $350,000 of the $850,000 needed for the work.

Stewart said she brought up the idea of a bride’s dressing area after her grandson married in the chapel several years ago.

“I thought it would add to the appeal of the place and make it more user-friendly,” she said.

And she hopes the project will include a high hook for hanging a wedding dress, a three-way mirror and dressing table, and an improved walkway and landscaping outside.

“I think we all hope that we retain, as much as possible, the original feel of the building,” she said.

The new construction will match the existing building, Corman said. The chapel is not listed on any historic registers so the project does not need to go through a special approval process.

KU buildings that are on the National Register of Historic Places are Bailey, Dyche, Lippincott, Spooner and Strong halls.

The work neither change the chapel’s capacity for weddings nor will it change the cost of having events there, KU officials said.