It is part of the Episcopal parish of St. James, whose main church is located 1 mile (1.6 km) north of it along Route 9.

The chapel is a Carpenter Gothic structure with some Swedish influences that served as the main church during winter months for a century.

[3] In 1993 the combined building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Bard Infant School and St. James Chapel.

The school building, built earlier, projects north from the chapel toward the street, just southeast of the post office.

The north (front) elevation has a projecting pediment forming a portico with a round-arched attic louver in the center.

Its roof is also shingled in asphalt, but steeply pitched with a cutout rakeboard at the east and an open belfry with pointed steeple at the west, over the gabled vestibule at the main entrance.

The new congregation built its church at the present site not long afterwards, near the ground where Bard and other early settlers had been buried.

The Greek Revival style was popular in the Hudson Valley at the time, and the original Doric columns on the front facade made the small building appear more important.

It continued hosting early services on Sunday mornings until 1998, when an extensive restoration program began.