Attached to their donation was the requirement that their nephew, I. N. Phelps Stokes, the author of The Iconography of Manhattan Island, design the building.

[1][3][4] The chapel's exterior of red brick with limestone trim—with terra cotta and bronze ornamentation—fits in with the original McKim, Mead buildings on the campus.

[4] The 24 windows around the drum of the dome carry the names of prominent New York families connected with the university, such as Philip Van Cortlandt, DeWitt Clinton and William C.

[4] The wrought-iron gates in front came from the North Reformed Dutch Church, which was located at Fulton and William streets in Manhattan, and closed in 1875.

The chapel has "sonorous" acoustics, which makes it an excellent venue for the long-running concert series "Music at St. Paul's", and its Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ is renowned for its fine tone.