The chapel is named for the Irish-born missionary St. Columba, renowned for his teaching, healing, and miracles in sixth-century Scotland.

Eugene Sturtevant and his wife, Mary Clark Sturtevant, daughter of Thomas March Clark, Bishop of Rhode Island and later presiding Episcopal Bishop of the U.S, donated an acre of land in 1882 for a chapel to serve the neighboring community.

The chapel was consecrated on August 31, 1886, as a mission of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island by Bishop Clark.

Many of the ordained teachers officiated at services, and before the school's own chapel was built, boys walked to St. Columba's for Sunday worship.

The chapel contains a collection of eleven stained-glass windows, ten by David Maitland Armstrong, executed by Tiffany Studio.