As. we close out year three of the Divine Stone Project, we thank all of our readers, supporters and contributors. This year we posted 21 stories, the total for the project is now 90 small dives into the amazing story of the stonework at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The archives contain all of these. The stories roll on and we’ll keep them coming.
Looking Back.
With sadness, we celebrated the life of Jose Tapia whose spirit is imprinted on the the Southwest Tower. Robert F. Rodriguez authored a 40th anniversary post along with photos and videos on the dedication ceremony for the tower. Additionally, he produced a unique video interview with Philippe Petit about his memories of that day. Wayne Kempton, Archivist, and Tom Fedorek, Senior Guide continue to bless us with supportive information and insights.
Mark and I presented the stone work history of the Cathedral at the 18th annual Stonework Symposium in October of 2022. This event was sponsored by The Stone Foundation. Additionally, Mark Saxe acquired access to John Barton’s slide image library from his time at the Cathedral. John was the Architect-in-Residence during the Dean Morton era. Stephen Boyle reached back and provided descriptions and methods of setting the stone on the Tower.
Looking Forward
We are rounding the corner on the construction of the majestic Nave which will end with a focus on the West Front. There was some carving activity on the West Front in the 1960’s and we will cover that and some special contributions by Canon West. Shortly, we will be back to the Dean Morton era and more stories about the cutters, carvers and setters of that period.
We always welcome comments, suggestions, guest authors and storytellers. Please help keep the stories roll on.
Scientific American, J. Bernard Walker, November 1927
That is the premise of this article in Scientific American from 1927. The Thirteenth Century French style nave is marked by great simplicity and dignity. It has the fundamental characteristics of the cathedrals of Notre Dame, Chartres, Ameins and Rheims. Among these, the interior of St. John’s nave is unmatched for sheer majesty. A review of the building methodology of the nave goes a long way to answer the question. Will it last 5,000 years?
Both the exterior granite and the interior limestone in themselves will last that long. So, what other factors can determine how long that building will last? The author, an engineer, suggests three: design, poor ancillary materials and workmanship. He suggests that St. John’s greatly surpasses, in its structural strength and workmanship, the cathedrals of the Middle Ages.
The Design Compromised by Material Availability
The drawing above compares a pier in Gloucester Cathedral (1100 A.D.) and one of the intermediate piers of St. John’s. The builders of the Twelfth Century Norman Church, and all the later medieval churches, could not afford to construct their piers of cut stone throughout. They built an exterior shell of fine squared stone, from six to twelve inches thick. They then filled the center with a core of rubble set in lime mortar.
When the load of the upper walls came upon such piers, the rubble core settled more readily than the carefully jointed ashlar casing. With the passage of centuries, the mortar frequently disintegrated and the center rubble core lost its bearing quality. The whole load rested on the thin outer shell, which would bend or bulge, flakes of stone splitting off, and the work threatening an early fall.
The more slender intermediate piers of St. John’s have amazingly slender proportions, a diameter of 5 feet to a length of 98 feet. To guard against any buckling under the load they carry, each course became a single granite block. These blocks weigh up to 4 tons each, set with thin cement mortar joints.
Medieval Churches Limited to Small Stone
In those early days, money was scarce and the world had lost many of the secrets of construction, notably that of the making of the cement. This was the ingredient that made for the lasting work of the Romans. It was an age of small stone and mortar construction. Lack of suitable tools and appliances at the quarries, poor roads and inadequate means of transportation had an impact. This and the lack of capital drove the early builders to the use of small size building stone. In binding this material together, they were restricted to the use of lime mortar. Some of this was good, but much of it, as many a catastrophe proved, of wretched quality.
The Main Piers
The main piers measure 11 feet by 16 feet, 3 inches. They consist of a heavy outer casing of multiple ton Indiana limestone with an inner core of massive squared granite blocks. Each granite block weighs between 5.5 and 7 tons.
Towers Collapse and Piers Buckle in Medieval Cathedrals
In both English and French cathedrals built in the Middle Ages there have been many building problems. Chichester, Ely, Wells, Salisbury and Beauvais have experienced these problems as well as tower collapses, failures and the need for heroic measures to shore up the building. The settlement of the masonry under the thrust and counter thrust of vault and flying buttresses have caused much of this.
Stone vaulting for the nave at St. John the Divine. Keystones weigh up to 5 tons
St. John’s has been designed and built with a careful avoidance of the pitfalls which so often brought disaster to certain medieval churches. The load upon every pier, the thrust against every buttress, has been calculated with close exactness. The crushing strength and the safe limit of loading of each kind of stone are known.
This cross-section illustrates the strength and mass of the abutments. The thrust of the nave vault, great though it may be, will never push these huge masses of out of plumb. They may well be in place for 5,000 years.
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Building for the Ages, J. Bernard Walker, Scientific American, November 1927
All images and drawing are from the above article as is the 5,000 Years question.
Foundations, Basement and Floor of the Nave, approximately 1918
The Cornerstone of the Nave was dedicated by Bishop Manning on November 9, 1925
Jacob & Youngs, contractors for the Nave, had three construction issues to resolve for constructing the Nave. One, to reduce to a minimum the fire hazard of scaffolding; two, the centering of 250 ton stone arches that would crown 120 feet above the floor; and three, a design for the centering system that could adapt itself progressively to an increasing height up to 100 feet, all the while supporting scaffolding and erection derricks. The contractor selected a steel structure to deliver the 90,000 stones.
August, 1925
They erected eight steel towers (4 pairs) to varying heights as needed. These towers would support hoisting rigs, scaffolding and centers. The towers could provide material to the two lines of piers on each side of the Nave, the outside walls, the buttresses and the arch vaulting of the ceiling.
Various passageways and runways honeycomb the steel structure. These are to facilitate transporting material. Six twenty-ton derricks top off the steel towers to move the heaviest material. The derricks have 70 foot booms. The derricks are operated by direct current electric hoists of 50 and 75 horsepower.
Material yards on each side of the building were convenient to the large derricks on the towers. Small hand derricks on the ground move the stones around the yard. A foreman in each yard is responsible for sending up the proper pieces when needed. The limestone arrives carefully wrapped in burlap. Since most of the pieces are small, a number of the them were hoisted on a skip. On the other hand, the large pieces of granite and limestone are hoisted one at a time and deposited in place by the large derricks. Some of the pieces of granite weigh 12 tons. Small hand derricks can place the limestone and smaller granite .
In addition to the two material yards, a shop is maintained on the job where the finishing touches are put upon the carved stone. The cement mortar is mixed by hand in the crypt below the floor. It is placed in wheelbarrows and carried up to the working platform by an elevator operated by a 35-hp. electric hoist.
Image – Indiana Limestone Company
The ordinary masonry gang consists of a stone setter who is gang boss, fitter, and two derrick men. One of the derrick men assist the fitter and the other operates the bell signal rope to the hoist house on the nave floor. The hoist engineer completes the gang personnel. The gang varies slightly where hand hoists are used exclusively. These gangs are distributed one on each pier and at intervals along the walls. The total labor force numbers 175 to 200 men. David Bell is the superintendent in charge.
Constructing the Nave, Opinion from 1926 – Engineering News Record
“Structurally the Cathedral is medieval. It is true masonry, not concrete and tile and steel. Arch and wall, buttress and pillar are cut and carved stone. In its construction there are some modern touches. Where in old cathedrals the stone was shaped by the mallet and chisel, it is now made ready largely by the stone dressing machine and the pneumatic tool. The former mazes of timber staging and centers are replaced by a comparatively simple supporting structure and working platform of steelwork. The electric elevator and derrick now do the work of hand winches and many human carriers.
Today the old methods would have put the cost beyond count. Even by the measure of modern methods and machines, here was a difficult construction task. There are repeated circumstances, as may be observed on the cathedral work, in laying fine architectural stone masonry where old ways and tools cannot be bettered. No power hoist can surpass the hand winch in convenience and precision in lining in, for example, the stones in the clustered columnar piers. But without modern methods the practicability of such a structure would be doubtful. Out of them come speed and safety and a limited need of workmen. Out of this gain came economy and the possibility of reproducing a medieval type structure at present day prices and wages.”
After the consecration of 1911 of what was then constructed, little new construction occurred. In 1916 the foundations for the Nave began but money ran out concurrent with the outbreak of WWI. It was not until Bishop Manning that the construction of the Nave took off.
William Thomas Manning was elected Bishop of New York on January 20, 1921. Manning was outspoken, a strong leader, with strong opinions. He was determined to see the Cathedral and the diocese play a prominent role in national affairs. Manning intended to bring the Cathedral structure to completion, so as to make it a persuasive platform for wide influence.
Bishop Manning became what Bishop Henry Codman Potter before him, and Dean James Parks Morton after him: promoter, advocate, impresario and charismatic champion. Newspapers discovered that “Bishop Manning was good copy”, an important civic figure as well as leader within his own ecclesiastical family.
The Big Fund Drive
The pace of cathedral construction follows the pace of money raising. Bishop Manning understood the cost of the Nave would be $15,000,000, the equivalent of $255 million today. Some of the enthusiasm from school children, societies, churches, poor people, rich people was organic. Most was due to a well crafted campaign professionally run by Tamblyn and Brown who wrote the book on fund raising, literally.
Tamblyn and Brown, New York, Raising Money, August 1 1920
Tamblyn and Brown was engaged, not to do the actual work of soliciting gifts, but to organize the campaign. They would do the vast amount of clerical work, suggest plans and methods and give advice. There were long discussions with Tamblyn and Brown and an elaborate plan and agreement worked out. Eighteen months passed before the first meeting of the campaign executive committee. The kick-off did not begin until four years after Bishop Manning’s election.
In the meantime, the Bishop personally appealed for gifts. Among his many religious duties, he wrote letters, sent literature, made calls, referred to the gifts of others and used an infinite variety of means to appeal to possible donors.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, National Chairman of the Cathedral Campaign Committee, chaired the great core event of the campaign. The rally at Madison Square Garden on January 18, 1925 united all of New York on behalf of the effort.
FDR
The rally was attended by 15,000 with many more listening on the radio. It was said that 5,000 were turned away. This may have been due to the questionable zeal of someone who had two tickets distributed for each available seat in the Garden.
Success For All
Neither The Bishop nor Roosevelt were figure heads. They each worked harder than anyone in the endeavor. They knew the mission was correct, the money was out there and they needed to create the enthusiasm and the fervor for the undertaking. There was an all-star track meet in Yankee stadium. Vince Richard played Bill Tilden on the championship court of Forest Hills. The worlds leading polo players vied at Meadowbrook. The Bishop was even taken out onto the ice at intermission of a hockey match at the garden for the benefit if the Sports Bay at the Cathedral.
The 1925 fund raised $10,000,000 and lead the way for more funds to be raised. One rule that had been prevalent since the beginning was that there should be no debt upon the Cathedral. All of the construction contracts were written so that the work could progress only as money allowed.
After 26 years as Bishop of the Diocese of New York, and the completion of the Nave and remodeling of the Choir, Manning retired. Bishop Manning and construction of the Nave was complete.
In the American History Bay, at floor level are the effigy, tomb, and chantry of William Thomas Manning, tenth bishop of New York. The tomb was carved from Carrara Marble by Constantin Antonovici.
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The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Rev. George W. Wickersham
The Living Cathedral, Howard E Quirk
Prudently With Power: Life of William Thomas Manning, W. D. F. Hughes
The death of George Heins in 1907 effectively ended the contract of Heins and LaFarge with the Cathedral. Grant LaFarge continued supervision of the then parts of the Cathedral under construction. This ended with the completion of the crossing dome and the consecration of 1911. Ralph Adams Cram was appointed the consulting architect.
Bishop Henry Colman Potter was the force behind the selection of the initial design. He was attracted to the Byzantine/Romanesque/Gothic design, in part because it suggested internationalism and ecumenism. The foundation of that design, the enormous crossing, also appealed. It would be the Cathedral’s primary space, where large numbers would gather in a single body to see and hear.
From the very beginning, some members of the Cathedral corporation had favored a more purely Gothic style. After Bishop Potter’s death, criticism of the design had become more outspoken. Additionally, in the early 1900’s the style of the design’s popularity wasn’t what it was in the 1890’s.
Ralph Adams Cram was the county’s foremost expert on Neo-Gothic architecture. The Firm of Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson was engaged in multiple church and collegiate projects at the time.
Transforming to Gothic
The main issue that Cram inherited was the proportions of the existing structure. The enormous crossing, the central element of Heins and LaFarge’s design, was 90 feet by 90 feet. When Cram told partner Bertram Goodhue that they might be getting involved in the Cathedral,
I wondered what in the world we could do if we were forced to adhere to the present foundations
– Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue
Using the crossing width as the determining element for the width of the nave and determining a length for the nave in order to have a proportional Gothic relationship to the existing structure, Cram proceeded to solve the problem. Cram writes: “The original building had been laid out on a system of squares, not with the oblong areas of a normal Gothic church, and naturally, since it was more or less Romanesque. This was fortunate since, in order to do no violence to what existed, this setting-out had to be continued and this implied sexpartite vaulting.”
Sexpartite Vaulting – a rib vault divided into six bays by two diagonal ribs (c) and three transverse ribs (a). All the ribs are semi-circular.
Cram lengthened the church to 601 feet. Instead of building a traditional three aisle church consisting of a nave and two side aisles, he designed 146-foot-wide, five-aisle church.
Sexpartite Vaulting using primary and intermediate piers and internal buttresses -Image Cathedral of St. John the Divine
The Problem Meets an Elegant Solution
Cram introduced smaller intermediate piers in the primary arcade of the nave. The piers of the nave alternate between 16 feet and 6 feet in diameter. Each of the slender piers is composed of 53 course of solid granite, and each course weighs 4 tons. The large pillars have a granite base and a granite interior shaft faced with limestone. He resolved the nave into a system of four great squares or double bays, rather than eight rectangular bays. He lifted the intermediate piers as well as the primary piers to an enormous height (nearly 100 feet) and then pushed back the clerestory to a secondary line of piers. The aisles in between were then lifted to the full height of the nave vault. All this achieved an unprecedented amplitude (double that of any medieval cathedral) as well as a dramatic height and a remarkable play of light and shadow.
Interior of Nave – Image Wurts Bros. 1931 Museum of the City of New York
Here then was a chance completely to differentiate this particular cathedral from all others of the Gothic mode, so not only was the interior worked out on a system of columns alternating with massive piers, but the buttresses were alternately single and double.
– Ralph Adams Cram
Alternating Single and Double Buttresses lined up with the Primary Piers and Alternating Columns. Image – Cathedral of St. John the Divine
Cram continues…”Aisles had always been low, so that the clerestory came over the main arcade, with the result that great churches always seemed narrow and closely confined between crowding walls….here in New York the clerestory was pushed out to the line of the aisle walls, so giving a width of 100 feet between the containing walls, while the aisles themselves were raised in height to that of the nave, a greater elevation than occurs elsewhere in any Gothic Cathedral.”
French Gothic Influence
“Classical scale and detail of French Gothic became the inspirational influence and so, I suppose, the cathedral nave and west front are more French than anything else, though I still think it would be hard to find any instance of direct copying.”
Cram solved the design problems in quick order. However, construction waited for the funds to arrive.
Ralph Adams Cram – Supporter of Arts and Crafts
Cram, throughout his career, recognized the critical nature of craftspeople to carry out the final product. He sought out these special people in all areas, stained glass artists, wood carvers, sculptors and stone carvers.
Architecture by itself and without the cooperation of the other arts is almost helpless. It is true that architecture is the coordinating art, but the architect must be able to count on artists of every type to work with him in creating the finished product.
– Ralph Adams Cram
Ralph Adams Cram was a founding member of the society
After the Nave
Finally in 1938, sufficient funds became available to proceed with the work of modifying the interior of the choir. With the interior of the nave completed, a temporary altar was moved into it and a temporary wall put up. The exterior of the Heins & LaFarge designed structure needed no modification. There were enough Gothic elements to flow into the new nave exterior. The ornate interior of that structure, however, characterized by byzantine domes and romanesque arches made for an uncomfortable transition to the majestic Gothic nave.
At the east end of the apse was a semi dome of red Guastavino structural tile that was to display a mosaic of Christ. Yellow-green Guastavino tile groined vaults surmounted the choir stalls. Cram’s renovation included replacing the semi-dome with a seven cell Gothic vault framing seven clerestory windows. Three quadripartite Gothic vaults replaced the glazed tile vaults.
The Choir modifications took three years. These changes created design elements that became sympathetic with the nave.
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Have I A “Philosophy of Design”, Ralph Adams Cram, Pencil Points (magazine), Volume XIII, November 1932
Strangers and Pilgrims: A Centennial History of the Laymen’s Club of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Sypher, F.J.
Ralph Adams Cram, American Medievalist, Douglas Shand-Tucci
