A vintage drawing was discovered in a New York flea market by Master Mason Stephen Boyle. Having worked on the Cathedral for many years, he could instantly identify the drawing. This precious artifact is now on its way to the Cathedral Archives, a gift from Steve.
At the time of the drawing, the images below represent what was happening on the ground.
Byron Company Image, Museum of the City of New York 
Foundation Piers, Monumental Columns being erected, Belmont Chapel (Chapel of St. Saviour) on Left 
Belmont Chapel (Chapel of St. Saviour) First of the Apsidal Chapels
and Great Arches, Rotograph Company Image, Museum of the City of New York
The bold black in the drawing represent the foundation piers in place in this plan view in 1903.
The Cathedral Close turned out differently as did the the Cathedral. A shift occurred around 1911. The brief love affair with the eclectic Byzantine/Romanesque/Gothic design elements faded in favor of French Gothic and many changes occurred. In plan view, you can see one of them, the length and width of the Nave.
Currently Configured Cathedral 
1903 Drawing in Colored Ink, Cathedral St. John the Divine, Heins & LaFarge Architects
The vintage drawing discovered by the Master Mason is a valuable record for the history of the Cathedral.
Heins & LaFarge
The pair met at M.I.T. during their studies. They established their partnership in New York in 1888. The young firm won the commission for the Cathedral in 1891. Heins was the field man, the builder. LaFarge was the principal designer.
In its design for the Cathedral, Heins and LaFarge employed a centrally massed plan. It consisted of a prominent crossing tower, an apsidal end, apsidal chapels and rounded transepts. The exterior combined round-arch Romanesque and Byzantine elements with Gothic Details. The interior contained many Richardsonian Romanesque touches, named after their mentor Henry Hobson Richardson.
Heins and LaFarge’s inspiration was Santa Sophia in Istanbul, St. Mark’s in Venice and St. Front in Perigueux, France. The design epitomized the eclecticism that defined the architecture of that era, which favored the exotic over the didactic to solve contemporary design dilemmas. It tried to capture some of the character of European cathedrals which were built over long periods of time and contained elements of many styles.
3 replies on “Vintage Drawing Discovered”
The thing that attracts me the most to this layout by Heins and LaFarge lies at the corner of Cathedral Parkway (110th St) and Morningside Drive. It is a dramatic stairway leading from that corner to what would have become the South Transept entrance to the Cathedral. The idea was first floated that people strolling in the northern area of Central Park would look west and see the cathedral. They would then promenade down Cathedral Parkway and up the staircase, creating a natural connection between the two.
Kudos to Steve Boyle for his sharp eye and his generosity in donating this valuable artifact to the cathedral archives. It is quite intriguing to see where H&L planned to put the auxiliary buildings. Synod House eventually wound up in the opposite corner of the Close. The Deaconesses Institute (the current Diocesan House) also moved from the north side to the south.
Most interesting is the grand staircase rising from the SE corner of the Close to the south transept. I’d guess that H&L anticipated that most visitors would travel to the cathedral via the 110th St station of the 9th Ave elevated train, one short block away. The el was the only mass transit serving the area in 1903; the Broadway IRT would not open until the following year and the 8th Ave IND until 1940, when the el was demolished. The staircase may also be a vestige of H&L’s 1891 design, which had the cathedral on a north-south axis with the main entrance on Cathedral Parkway.
[…] Wayne kemptonsays:November 29, 2021 at 1:58 pm • Edit […]