Nicole Rice, Of Lawrence, walks with her daughters, Darbi Rice, 8, left, and Emari Rice, 10, right, and her husband, Fred Rice, behind Nicole, Saturday through Danforth Chapel. The Rices said they were married there 15 years ago. I

A Kansas University landmark, Danforth Chapel, has opened its doors once again.

The intimate chapel atop Mount Oread on Jayhawk Boulevard was closed through the summer for a $900,000 expansion and restoration.

KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway led a re-dedication ceremony Saturday to show off and celebrate the renovations.

“The completion of Danforth Chapel’s restoration and addition project means the chapel is ready for its next 61 years – and it’s bigger and better than ever,” Hemenway said to about 90 people. Other speakers at the ceremony included Hannah Love, KU student body president; Dale Seuferling, president of KU Endowment Association; and Robert Shelton, a religious studies professor.

Since the chapel was built in 1946, more than 5,000 weddings have taken place in it. The 2007 wedding reservation list is quickly growing. More than 20 weddings are planned for October, and there were three weddings on Sept. 8, a day after construction was complete.

The structure has been undergoing changes since a March 2001 microburst severely damaged its roof and uprooted trees on its lawn.

The historical elements of the gothic revival chapel were maintained. This consists of its native limestone obtained from a farm fence near Kanwaka, a few miles west of Lawrence. The original blue stained glass windows were also restored. The interior was refurnished to include a 600-square-foot addition on the chapel’s southeast side that includes a bride’s suite.

Other improvements include new flooring, walls, air conditioning, lighting, restrooms and handicapped accessibility.

All the woodwork was restored and extensive landscaping was made possible by the Class of 2006. The Class of 2007 helped fund renovations on the organ.

Lead donors of the restoration were Linda and John Stewart III, who attended KU in the late 1950s and have remained involved with the university since. John Stewart serves on the executive committee of the KU Endowment Board of Trustees, and his father was one of the chapel’s original donors.

Their son-in-law, Thomas Fritzel, of Gene Fritzel Construction Co., helped lead the project.

Linda Stewart can be thanked for the details a bride can appreciate, such as a three-way mirror, hooks and plugs for hairdryers.

“All those things guys might not think of,” she said.

Gail Tiemann, project coordinator for KU’s Advanced Learning Technologies in Education Consortium, would have appreciated those details, especially a changing room, during her wedding in March 2001.

When she married her husband, Oather Strawderman, a physics teacher at Free State High School, she had to ask permission from the university’s housing director to change into her gown in Miller Scholarship Hall on Lilac Lane.

She said she has a photo of herself walking down the lane with her bridesmaids holding her dress, all of them singing “Chapel of Love.”

The couple, alumni from KU who both lived in scholarship halls during their years in school, said they loved the changes.

Danforth Chapel is not just a place for newlyweds but also a place for quiet reflection.

“Not only is it going to be helpful to couples; I think it will continue to be an important place for people to sit by themselves, a time to reflect,” said the Rev. Thad Holcombe, campus minister for Ecumenical Christian Ministries.