Divine Stone

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.

• 

• 

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

(We are grateful to Doreen Clark, James Bambridge’s sister for the information provided in this post. She has written to us from Kirk Ella, East-Riding of Yorkshire.) Here then is the Master Builder revisited, Part One.

Jim was born inTooting, a district in south London on February 10, 1928. As a lad he enjoyed swimming and diving, sang soprano in the choir, played the bugle and took up fencing. For pocket money, he and brother Ted would go to Tooting Market and get empty wooden crates. They chopped them into small pieces and sold the bundles door to door in the neighborhood for kindling. When he reached 14 years of age the family decided that he would follow older brother Ted into an apprenticeship at an electrical engineering firm. Jim announced, however, the he was going to Trollope & Colls and gain an apprenticeship there. He also attended evening classes at the Brixton School of Building.

As an apprentice he had to take exams and was delighted as he’d gained a first. The piece was a small headstone with a Celtic cross. He was now a third generation stone mason.

Off To Work

When sister Doreen was 8 or 9 years old, her parents took her to the cinema. “The News” came on first and there on the screen was Salisbury Cathedral. There was a group of 3 or 4 masons and there in front was Jim. She shouted, “Mum look, there’s Jim!” She was so excited to see him.

Jim was happy when he was working, but frustrated that when he applied for a position he got the same answer, you are too young for that job. So, much to his parents surprise he came home one day to tell them he’d bought a ticket on the Queen Mary, and was off to the States.

“Over there you would be given the job, age not considered, not with my credentials”

-James Bambridge

Jim settled in Hamilton, Ontario, married and had plenty of work. He eventually returned to the UK and lived in Putney. His chisel has been applied to the most historic of buildings including:

• Mansion House, London – Home and Office of the Lord Mayor of London
• Lambeth Palace London – Residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury
• Buckingham Palace, London – Repairing war damage
• The Houses of Parliament
• Christopher Wren’s spire on St. Dunstan’s
• St. Johns Cathedral, Newfoundland – Restoration of North America’s oldest cathedral
• Liverpool Cathedral – Ten years at Liverpool, it completed in 1978
• Wells Cathedral

Unknown to him, emissaries from St. John the Divine had sought him out, looked him over, and asked about him. He was busy on the west front of Wells Cathedral when he was invited to travel to New York.

Next Week, the rest of the Master Builder revisited story…

The photo above showcases Angel’s ability and artistry as a stone cutter. Angel Escobar’s journey from the streets of Harlem to Lead Cutter for Cathedral Stoneworks is one of perseverance and personal pride.

In his own words…”I never thought I would be working for this church. When I was small, I used to look at the church from way down there, from East 112th Street, and wonder what that big thing was. I was hanging out on the streets a lot by the time I was in my teens. My mother had died, and I dropped out of school. I had to do for myself.

Then I heard about this street gang, the Renegades. Me, I didn’t like being in the street. So when I heard the Renegades had given up their chains and stopped fighting to do something for the community, I found out about it. There was a housing training program on the Lower East Side that got kids off the streets. The people who ran the program wanted to save a lot of tenement buildings in the neighborhood. I joined up as soon as I dropped out of school, and got training and a job remodeling those old cold water flats.

On to the Cathedral

It was a good training program. Professionals taught each trade: sheet rocking, carpentry, masonry, plumbing, bricklaying, stucco, cement, wall. I got my mason’s certificate there and did bricklaying for four years. But the man I was working for went broke, and he recommended that I apply to the Cathedral’s building program. I started out here as a trainee. For two years I moved stones, stacked stones, drove the crane and the forklifts. Heavy work, but it was just a beginning.

I’ve been here ten years now. Stonecutting is a lot different than mortaring brick. At the beginning I used to get angry when I couldn’t get it right. It takes about five to six months to get down the use of the hammer, punching. I was in the carving shed for three years, learning how to carve. I like the skill, working with your hands and your mind. I’ve done all sorts of stones here, so many.

Ten years ago, I was really surprised when they accepted me. I thought, wow, I’m going to cut stone? On that building up there on the hill across town? And now I’m lead cutter, teaching the apprentices, and still learning.” Angel Escobar’s journey from Harlem is one he takes enormous pride in.

• Angel Escobar’s words are from the Cathedral Stoneworks personnel profiles.