The Master Builder In New York

The Master Builder in New York follows Jim Bambridge to the Cathedral St. John the Divine in New York City. Bishop Moore and Dean Morton made the decision to renew construction, beginning with the towers on the West Front. There were, however, a few minor delaying factors to contend with. There was no architect, no documents, no stones, no stonecutting equipment and no stonecutting craftsmen. Jim Bambridge was sent for to direct the overall project. He is a throwback to slower times and gentler ways, a fastidious man who builds churches out of an affinity for stone and styling rather than any great spiritual mission.

“There might be five like me around”

– Jim Bambridge

Above all, he was uniquely trained, a man of increasing rare skills. He would oversee management, the execution of drawings, the stone cutting, and the construction. Among his first tasks was converting the 1/8 in. original 1929 blueprints of Ralph Adams Cram to 1/2 in. working drawings.

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Design Documents

Ralph Adams Cram had long since died (1942). Furthermore, the sole survivor of his firm, the late John Doran, could find only 1/8 in. scale drawings of the West Front Towers, dated 1925, 1928, 1929, and 1930. The question posed was, which of the preliminary designs was to be the guideline? Eventually, the Fabric Committee selected the 1929 scheme as Cram’s preferred design. The 1930 towers’ design were 38 feet lower, reflecting the Depression.

The detail of the the spires that will adorn the world’s largest Anglican Cathedral are calculated in the small Dorset village where Bambridge spends five out of every eight weeks. He lives in a cottage – in which out of habit, he has built a fireplace that he describes as baronial – with his wife, mother-in-law, and a dog and three ducks. The working plans he takes to New York to be translated into full scale templates.

“T0 be a good stone mason”, he said, “you must have an eye for surfaces. You must visualize the finished job before you start, so when you drop into the stone with your chisel, you knew where you were going. Don’t tap the stone like a chicken. Be authoritative. Strike the chisel forcefully with a regular beat.”

The Next Generation

Of all the tasks he performed exceptionally, the one that appears to be dearest to his heart was training his crew. Years before, he had told his sister…

“I’m afraid Doreen, unless we can train more youngsters to the stone trade, the skills will die”

-Jim Bambridge, as told by his sister Doreen Clark

Doreen Clark, Jim’s sister recalls his story of his first week as the Master Builder in New York when the apprentices showed up with guns and knives. Horrified, he told them they must not bring weapons into a sacred ground. The young men from Harlem told him they might be killed coming or going if they did not.

“My brother then understood, saw a small office area, opened the door and inside were shelves. He asked them if they knew their own weapons? Yes was the reply. Now he told them that once inside (the stoneyard) he would open the door to the office, ‘I hold the only key’, place your weapons on the shelf, I will lock it. Come 5 pm, you may retrieve your weapon.”

– Doreen Clark

Master Builder Bambridge’s principal successors in New York at St. John the Divine will be Stephen Boyle and Alan Bird, his British assistants and D’Ellis Kincannon. Kincannon worked as a mail boy in the diocese office, applied to become an apprentice and has, according to an enthusiastic Bambridge, emerged as a natural and gifted mason. You would think the stones he turns out, Bambridge says reverently, had been poured from a mold.

He oversees his pupils with a gruff benevolence that tries, and fails, to hide his pride in their achievements and his own sense of mission.

“The great fulfillment for me is that I can teach another generation of stone cutters. That’s more important than completing the Cathedral.”

– Jim Bambridge

Back in England

After 7 years, Bambridge returned to England and worked as Stone Consultant on Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square. On a surprise visit to the job site by sister Doreen, Jim was at lunch. Indicating she would come back later, a gentleman stopped her. “Come with me”, he said as he guided her over close to Nelson’s Column. “Look at the top of Grand Buildings, you will see 10 sculptured faces there, the third one in from the right is your brother.” At the fourth floor level, Sculptor Barry Baldwin had carved keystone portrait heads of the important individuals responsible for the development and construction.

Upon the completion of Grand Buildings, Jim Bambridge retired to the small holding in Dorset. He was visited there by his highly regarded assistant and Master Mason Stephen Boyle.

• Special thanks to Doreen Clark for sharing her memories of her brother.
• YOU magazine, UK, Daily Mail
• Oculus, New York Chapter AIA, October 1985, Vol 47, Number 2