Divine Stone

(This is Part One of two articles on the early work on the Portal of Paradise. They are written by DivineStone co-author, photojournalist and Cathedral Artist-in-Residence, Robert F. Rodriguez. All of the images in the article are those of the writer.) – RM

Stoneyard apprentices contribute solidly to the first phase

Jessica Aujero Lowrie took a slow walk along 112th Street, the looming Cathedral of St. John the Divine getting larger before her. Memories and emotions arose as she neared the steps leading to the Portal of Paradise – a project she worked on over 35 years ago. This was her first visit since.

“I can’t believe we did this work,” she said, scanning the carved monument on three levels. “What a great thing we did.”

In the fall of 1988, Master Sculptor Simon Verity led a team including Amy Brier, Jessica Aujero (now Lowrie), Gabriele Hiltl-Cohen, Joseph Kincannon, Dennis Reed, D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon and later Sebastian Casamajor in carving the bases, or pedestals – the lowest level of the three-tier portal. The 12 major-rank figures would stand on these base carvings.

The primary work of this first short season was to start roughing out the eight-foot-tall limestone blocks of the major-rank figures and get a feel for working in situ. Using wide chisels and heavy hammers, the crew started removing the edges of the rectangular monoliths, chipping away at excess material as a preliminary step to carving.

The Portal of Paradise includes 32 carved limestone biblical figures based on the iconography developed by Cathedral architect Ralph Adams Cram and Bishop William T. Manning in 1925. Dean James Parks Morton wanted to make some updates to the original list of figures in consultation with the Rev. Minka Sprague and Rabbi Rolando Matalon, who remembers being summoned to Dean Morton’s office for a late-evening conversation on which figures should be included. From these meetings, a number of biblical women were added to the iconography.

Rabbi Matalon calls the Portal of Paradise “such an amazing, daring and bold work and it was also very inclusive. They (Dean Morton and Bishop Paul Moore) were aware of the Jewish roots of Christianity and they were committed that the link would never be erased. The Portals also reflect that commitment to celebrate the connection between Jews and Christians.”

The first full season of carving the portal began in April 1989. Jessica recalls working on thin and rickety scaffolding, carefully balancing on the planks to start work on her pedestal. She was the only apprentice to carve two bases. Elijah’s ascension into heaven appeared on the north side. 

According to the Bible (2 Kings 2:11), the prophet Elijah ascended to heaven in a fiery whirlwind, with his successor Elisha witnessing the event. Amidst Jessica’s swirling-column base, two carved faces barely emerge from the windstorm, almost gasping for air and seemingly caught up in the vortex. Her narrative blends harmoniously with the carving above of the figures of Elijah and Elisha.

Studying her work Jessica says, “I thought I was carving too deep but I see others that are deeper. In stone, you have to think structurally, also, where the (rain) water will land. When the water freezes, will it destroy or crack anything; can the water drip down cleanly. You have to think about those things.” Overall, Jessica feels the work has held up.

Simon Verity, in Jessica’s opinion, was a hands-off teacher. She remembers only doing a few preliminary sketches. “We would run an idea by Simon and he would say ‘go with it,’” which made Jessica feel nervous. “Simon was nearby and we could always ask each other. We had time to think about it while we were (working) – it was a slow process,” she adds.

On the north side of the Portal of Paradise, Amy Brier and Gabriele Hiltl-Cohen’s base carvings flank Jessica’s work.

Amy Brier worked on the base of the major-rank figure of Moses. She recalls, “being Jewish, I thought that was appropriate and I researched into his (Moses’) mythology as a magician (e.g. turning Aaron’s staff into a snake) and the Cabalistic aspects — the mystical side of Judaism.” The Cabala is the mystical writing of the Jews.

“I put the Tree of Life on the base, which is also a kind of feminist statement,” Amy adds. “Traditionally, the Cabala couldn’t even be studied by women, only by men, I think, over a certain age, who were married. I felt like I was putting my mark there.”

One of Amy’s preliminary drawings suggests she wrestled with the iconography for the base. Amy wanted to create a narrative image that expressed the fundamental gesture of Moses’ work and she sought guidance from the Rev. Minka Sprague. “We talked about Judaism and I learned a few things,” says Amy, who remembers Rev. Sprague as “the priest in pink shoes.” 

In a December 1988 Cathedral Newsletter article, Rev. Sprague addressed the importance of readings of religious texts. “In case any might feel unequal to Biblical interpretation,” Sprague said, “we’re all unworthy, but we are called on.”

Amy’s finished work shows the Cabala, depicted here using a helix-type figure, one of the Cabala’s several symbols. On the column below someone else started carving chain links that she icorporated into the design, along with the Red Sea, to represent bondage and escape from Egypt.

Samuel, the first of the great prophets since Moses, is the upper major-rank figure on the north side closest to the Bronze Doors. Gabriele Hiltl-Cohen’s task was to carve a complimentary base below. 

A Cathedral pamphlet provides more details on the Biblical character Samuel, who anointed Saul as king but warned the people that in choosing a king, they were rejecting God. This could be interpreted as no king is above the law of God.

Trained as a stone carver in Germany, Gabriele read pertinent Biblical passages and focused on Saul disobeying God in two ways: by making a rash oath that led to his soldiers sinning, and by failing to destroy the Amalekites and their livestock as commanded. Because of this disobedience, which stemmed from fear of the people and pride, God rejected Saul as king.

“I compared this to the current political situation,” says Gabrielle, referring to Iran-Contra, a political scandal in the United States that centered on arms trafficking to Iran between 1981 and 1986, facilitated by senior officials of the Ronald Reagan administration. The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras, an anti-Sandinista rebel group in Nicaragua. The administration’s justification for the arms shipments was that they were part of an attempt to free seven U.S. hostages being held in Lebanon by Hezbollah.

Gabriele knew she had to be “very clear in (her) story telling.” Carving traditions from the Middle Ages had to be direct and simple when many people were illiterate.

Her carving shows the U.S. Capitol with bombs and hungry people in a depiction of the world gone awry under the wrong leader. For some, this interpretation can easily be applied to the current administration. 

Below the Capitol building, a man holds a suitcase full of money that is falling out of the bulging valise. This represents the proceeds from the illegal arms sales. Off to one side, an armed man seems to be guarding blindfolded prisoners. Gabrielle added a number of homeless people pointing to the illegal activity, acting almost as a Greek chorus. She based this grouping on some homeless who frequently took refuge on the steps of the Cathedral. 

“It reflected our current state of political and social injustices,” Gabriele reminisces, adding that Master Sculptor Simon Verity liked the idea of Gabriele adding the homeless to her piece.

Jessica said Gabriele’s carving of olive leaves on the slender column beneath her tableau was “beautiful – we were partners during the whole carving process.” 

While the apprentices were carving the pedestal bases, Simon plunged into work on the first major-rank figure, that of Melchizedek, a priest and King of Salem. By late October 1988, the facial features and elongated drapery of the eight-foot carving started to emerge. Simon worked tirelessly on the carving until it was time to remove the scaffolding for the season – one of the drawbacks to working in situ versus having the comfort and relative warmth of the carving shed.

The following season, besides continuing work on Melchizedek, Simon also carved two pedestal bases on the north side. Under the major-rank figures of Abraham and Sarah, he carved a depiction of a baby (Isaac, Abraham’s son) emerging from the womb and a spiral representing Abraham climbing the hill to sacrifice him.  His other base carving showed Jacob (the father of the 12 tribes of Israel) wrestling with the Angel of God during his dream, below the major-rank figure of Jacob.

At that time, according to Canon Edward Nason West, if a shed were erected around the portal construction zone, the crew could carve all year round – and keep their work from inquisitive eyes, the sidewalk superintendents as well as the gawkers and photo seekers.  However, that did not happen – with Simon and the apprentices becoming part of the never-ending street theater in front of the Cathedral.  

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Sources: 

• Cathedral Newsletter Sept 1989
• Cathedral Newsletter Dec. 1988
• Portal of Paradise: A Guide to the Sculptures
• Wikipedia

Tim Smith passed away peacefully in his sleep on September 30, 2025, at his home in Philmont, NY. We remember Tim from the early days of the Stoneyard Institute. He was one of the first five apprentices hired to begin the work on the southwest tower. He had some previous experience with stone walls in Vermont and he had been a teacher. When he was interviewed by James Bambridge, the master builder, those qualities got him a position in the first group. Tim was 35 years old, a fellow apprentice, Jose Tapia was only 19. Linda Peer, another member of the first five recalls, Tim “was the person who came from elsewhere to work in the stoneyard. He took the biggest risk.”

During his years at the Cathedral stoneyard, Tim witnessed and was part of all the amazing events that occurred.  He was there in June of 1979, the day the first truckload of large Indiana limestone blocks arrived.

As part of that first group, he was taught to fashion joggle joints, the boasting finish, and cutting stone to exacting dimensions by Master Mason Chris Hannaway.

He had his turn at the saws like everyone did. Joseph Kincannon remembers his first day on the saws and an initiation supervised by Tim. “My first day as a Sawyer, Tim urged me to eat some slurry. He said it was a stone cutter’s right-of-passage. He demonstrated by sticking his finger in the slurry and eating it. (But, he didn’t. He switched fingers on the way to his mouth.) I did eat it, though, while he and Eddie (Pizzaro) doubled over laughing. I felt like a chump, but I’m still laughing. Never a dull moment with Tim.”

In May of 1981, Tim won the honor of cutting the 1,000th stone, a milestone for the stoneyard. He cut it from a block of Indiana limestone.

The stone is an intricately carved pier stone with base. It weighs about 1,350 pounds. It is stone number EA50 (East elevation, A Zone, stone #50)

Dean Morton took advantage of opportunities to show off the stone yard, like the milestone reached with the cutting of the 1,000th stone. Below, tight rope walker and celebrity Phillipe Petit is looking over the stone with the Dean and Timothy Smith in his favorite red hat.

Well, it may have been his favorite hat but he had a lot to choose from.

The above photos are by Robert F. Rodriguez

By September 1982, Tim helped set massive limestone blocks on Amsterdam Avenue for Phillipe Petit’s rigging crew to secure guide wires to his overhead cable.

The upcoming ceremony, the setting of the Jerusalem Stone, marked the beginning of construction on the southwest tower.

He was up front for the speeches and up top to see Phillip Petit’s high wire walk with the silver trowel.

After three years of cutting stones, there were 4,000 to start construction. 

Tim and fellow apprentices, Jose Tapia and James Jamerson, received honors in the Cathedral in May of 1983. They were the first to complete the four-year apprentice program. Tim was a leader in the stoneyard and both a learner and a teacher. 

Construction on the tower began slowly after the 4,000 stones were cut, due to budget and equipment constraints. Two crews up top would have been ideal and Tim would have been the obvious choice to head up a second fixing crew. According to construction supervisor, Master Mason Steve Boyle, “Tim had a great deal of work experience prior to the Cathedral which included layout and stonework, specifically dry stone walling at which he was very accomplished. Tim demonstrated this ability when the construction site at the south side was being prepared. the existing landscape was such that it was necessary to grade a gentle slope up to the level of the hoist platform retained on one side by a dry stone wall. It was also necessary to construct a shallow pit which would house the buffer and the drum that collected the power cable for the hoist.

“Tim was assigned this project which he carried out with large offcuts from the stoneyard. All credit to Tim, both the retaining wall and the pit were skillfully built and survived intact for the duration of the project. Tim was also chosen because he was industrious, had a really great, positive can-do attitude and was willing to have a go at pretty much anything. He was happy taking responsibility for difficult assignments but also didn’t shy away from even the most menial tasks. I remember seeing him in my first week with his sleeves rolled up cheerfully taking his turn cleaning out the toilets and lunch room in the stoneyard. He was quite content to grease machinery, move stone around in the stacking area and assist wherever help was needed.”

By 1986, John Walsh, then Clerk of the Works, had procured more equipment, including monorail modifications and an electric hoist. “Tim really came into his own during this period; he headed up a second crew on the East and North elevations and production increased dramatically,” said Boyle.

I’ll always remember Tim for being a kind, positive, reliable, helpful and generous person whose contributions to the Cathedral and Stone Industry were immense. He will be sorely missed.

– Stephen Boyle

On to Philmont

After his years at the Cathedral, Tim and his wife, Laurie, moved to Philmont, New York, where they established T.D. Smith Stonemasonry. Tim literally took a piece of the stoneyard with him. Next to his driveway is a limestone block, WA57. In an October, 2022 interview, Tim explained that two of the same stones were inadvertently cut. Tim felt the other stone, which he did not cut, was cleaner and closer to the template lines so that stone should be the one set on the tower. He took his block home as a keepsake.

Interviewed by the Daily Gazette locally in 2011, Tim spoke of his early stone experience that became a love of stone:

“Without his grandparent’s farm, he would have never learned how to build with stone. There were 40 cows on her farm that had to be milked by the farmer, he said, and he tended to get in the way. I got banned from the barn. On occasion, Smith, as a 10-year-old, would sneak into the barn, and on occasion, the farmer would catch him and bring him outside.  ‘He would kickover the stones in this large stone wall and say you can only go back in when you put all of those stones back up.’ That was how he became a mason.

“Tim left the Cathedral with enormous knowledge and experience, but that was not all. He also saw what Bambridge (Master Builder), Bird (Master Mason) and Boyle (Construction Supervisor) did with disadvantaged youths from Harlem, who learned the trade and became successful.”

T.D. Smith Stonemasonry began a program that helped at-risk youths in the area who struggled with school-based education and taught many of them how to survive in life as masons. Tim’s wife Laurie said “The school would drop the kid(s) off in the morning and they’d go back to school in the afternood for classes. They were given credit for working with Tim. It was amazingly successful.”

Tim’s stone restoration work appears all over Columbia County, New York. Several of Tim’s workers recalled how they met Tim and what the opportunity has meant to them. 

One 27-year-old worker said he had known Tim since he was 9 years old, when Tim ran a youth center in Philmont. He said, “I got myself in trouble with a few DWIs and Tim gave me a second chance. He gave me my job back.” That man is now an experienced bricklayer and pointer. Another one of Smith’s workers told how a teacher connected him with Tim. “He put me straight to work for six months every day at 8 a.m. When I was in school, I would attend my two morning classes, and then head to the house to work by noon.” He said the work motivated him to attend college and study architecture.

Some 10 years ago, a handwritten letter from Doreen Clark, James Bambridge’s sister came along. She was asking for a memorial in honor of her late brother, the Master Builder. Tim was one of the first apprentices hired by Bambridge for the Cathedral work. Tim designed a memorial tablet in consultation with Doreen, and in a few months, it was completed.

It sat there on his porch in Philmont, N.Y. until a chance conversation with Robert F. Rodriguez.  Robert fetched what was now two tablets and brought them to Manhattan, where he and Steve Boyle began to organize a way to get the Bambridge tablet up inside the tower and installed. 

In 2024, with the help of the facilities department at the Cathedral, the Bambridge tablet was installed inside the bell ringers’ chamber of the tower that Tim helped to build. Timothy Smith’s connection to the Cathedral is deep and long-lasting.

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• Divinestone.org blog
• Images provided by Robert F. Rodriguez
• Daily Gazette, Resource Center Opens with Salute to Mason, October 6, 2011.

Johno Verity visits the Portal of Paradise, one of his father’s major works

Wearing his trademark pink wool hat, Johno Verity tells his TikTok followers that he is biking through Central Park at 5:45 a.m. “My first stop on this trip to New York City,” he says, “was to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine to view a piece of sculpture that took my father, Simon Verity, 13 years** to finish — the Portal of Paradise.” 

Taking in the 32 carved limestone biblical figures based on iconography developed by Cathedral architect Ralph Adams Cram and Bishop William Manning in 1925, Johno exclaims, “Look at this thing – it is massive. Wallop!” Some details, including adding a number of biblical women, were finalized by Dean James Park Morton and a committee before actual work started in 1988.

This is Johno’s first visit to New York and to the Cathedral since his father, Master Sculptor Simon Verity, passed away last year. “It’s just amazing to come back here and to see it. It reminds me of being in my late teens, my early 20s and then also of my dad who died last year of dementia.” Link to obit Simon Verity – Master Sculptor (1945-2024) – Divine Stone

Johno Verity is a videographer with a TikTok page that focuses on offbeat London history for his 32,000+ followers. He recalls, “I first came to visit my father in New York back in 1989 when I was 13. I would return each year and watch its (the Portal of Paradise) progress as well as the team he’d built to work on it. The thing I loved the most were the elements of his life that he immortalized in stone. He had local people and friends pose for the carvings.” 

As a teenager visiting his father, Johno admits he was more interested in skateboarding down the railings in front of the Cathedral than in his father’s work. He was also an avid BMX biker from age 15 and his father introduced Johno to photographer Martha Cooper, who would go around the city with him to various skate parks and ramps to photograph Johno on his Motorcross bike – a small bike used for short bursts of speed and performing stunts. 

Surveying the completed Portal of Paradise, Johno says, “He had quite a few people that were assisting him carving this and he gave these lower pieces (the pedestals) to the assistants (Cathedral apprentice and journeymen carvers) to put their mark on.”

One pedestal that stands out to Johno is Joseph Kincannon’s “depiction of New York as the New Babylon the Great, illustrating the end of days. Though it was carved in the 90s, years before 9/11 (Sept. 11, 2001), there’s been some controversy over it because it’s depicting what looks like it’s celebrating the fall of the towers, although obviously there’s no way it could have been.”

A Cathedral visitor’s guide clarifies that Joseph Kincannon’s carving shows New York City, including the Twin Towers, portrayed under a mushroom cloud, interpreting the modern day destruction of Jerusalem. The Gothic arches represent the rebuilding of the “cathedral,” a symbol of hope after chaos.

On the south side of the Portal, Johno points up to “the lady in the green dress,” the upper-rank figure of Esther. The same Cathedral brochure explains that Esther, a beautiful Jewish woman, was chosen by the Persian king Ahasuerus to be his wife.  Esther overhears an evil court official, Haman, plotting to kill the King and massacre the Jews. Esther and her cousin Mordecai warned the King, thus thwarting his assassination. The Feast of Purim commemorates the deliverance of the Jews.

But, Johno’s story goes beyond the historical.

The woman who posed for Simon’s carving of Esther is Jessica (Johno can’t recall her last name) and “she’s got a dog called Cooper.” The dog walked into some of Simon’s photos while he was preparing some modeling and drapery studies. Johno adds, “that dog was an absolute nightmare, it loved Jessica but was freaked out by everyone else.”

At that time Martha Cooper, a New York City photojournalist and author, was photographing the work on the portal so, as a nod to Cooper the dog and Cooper the photographer, Simon carved the dog with a camera around its neck.

Another canine of note on the Portal appears with the far right upper-rank figure on the north side. The figure of Noah is carved as the seventh Dean of the Cathedral, The Very Rev. James Parks Morton, who was a life-long student of architecture and led the Cathedral’s third building phase. Dean Morton faces toward the Cathedral while holding the unfinished ark. His Welsh Corgi, Pepe, is seen at his feet, seemingly interacting with a small carved dragon on a nearby ledge.

Another nearby upper-rank carving depicts the biblical figure Deborah, a prophetess and judge. As a judge, she dispensed wisdom and resolved legal and political disputes. Deborah joined with Barak, the military leader, to overthrow the tyrant Sisera. Forty years of peace followed. Pamela Morton, wife of Dean Morton, known for her patience and good judgment, served as the model for this sculpture.

Johno, observing the colorful upper-rank figures, says, “I find it interesting that he chose to paint them. Most people didn’t realize it was a practice they did a thousand years ago. It could seem like sacrilege to change the natural color of the stone.”  

Only the figures in the top level of the Portal were painted, the colors coming from metallic oxides ground to a fine powder. The base of the paint is casein, a protein that derives from milk and is very much in line with the medieval tradition, when all the church sculptures were painted, according to Tom Fedorek, a Cathedral docent.

Seated on the steps below the Portal, Johno reflects on his visit and his father’s illness.

“I think because he died of dementia,” Johno thinks back, “those last couple of years I found him incredibly difficult because I saw him changing from the man he once was and that’s so difficult to deal with. And I was really worried that I would forget the memory of what he was like when he was fine.”  

Because of the disease “he stopped being the person he once was and coming here it just reminds me of how he was back then. He was brilliant, he was fun, he was cheeky, he had a sparkle in his eye, really, and it’s great to be here to witness that again.”

Pausing to look up the carvings, Johno says, “I see (the work) in a different light now to how I used to observe. When he was alive it was just a piece of his work; it was something he had done. I guess it really didn’t conjure up any real emotions; whereas now, since he’s died, it definitely brings these emotions of missing him. And also, what’s really important for me is it brings back a time in his life when he was completely fine.”

Johno adds, “What’s changed now from what it was is that it’s now a memory of him — because he died. It used to be just a piece of his work — this is a kind of lasting memory of mine.” 

NOTE: According to Cathedral records, the Portal of Paradise was carved between 1988 and 1997.

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Sources: Johno Verity, Johno Verity (@johnoverity) | TikTok 

Portal of Paradise: A Guide to the Sculptures, Cathedral of St. John the Divine

A pale, chalky block of limestone sits on the floor of the Chapel of St. Martin in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. This is the story of where it came from, how it came to the Cathedral, who brought it there, and why it is an historic stone.

Behind and above the stone, a marble sculpture of St. Joan of Arc stands flush against the wall. Joan folds her hands in prayer. Her contemplative expression suggests that though her body is armored for battle, her mind is far away from the battlefield.

Perhaps she is listening for the voice of the archangel Michael, which she first heard as a child, as depicted in the window across from the sculpture.

Joan lived her last five months in a tower of the Château de Rouen, or Rouen Castle, held in chains while a rigged ecclesiastical court convicted her on charges of idolatry, heresy, and sorcery. There she spent her final hours before her execution.

The stone on the chapel’s floor was once part of this tower, now known as the Tour de la Pucelle (the Maid’s Tower). 

Rouen Castle

Rouen Castle was built amid the conflict over control of the rich lands that would become the modern nation of France

In the twelfth century, most of western France was under the control of England’s Plantagenet kings (Henry II, Richard I, and John). In 1200, French forces under King Philip II, also known as Philip Augustus, began retaking the Plantagenet territory.

Once he had retaken Normandy, Philip built a massive castle in Rouen, the region’s principal city, as a defense against a return of the English. The castle, constructed between 1204 and 1210, had ten towers and was surrounded by a moat. Its round towers were the latest thing in castle building. According to Philip’s biographer: “No one contributed more to the introduction of round towers in castle design … Round towers, which were better designed to prevent damage from throwing engines or mining than rectangular towers, were the design of the future for castle architecture.”

Beginning in 1337, English and French forces fought one another in what became known as the Hundred Years War. In 1419, Henry V of England took Rouen after a six-month siege. He fortified the castle to withstand artillery fire and made it the base for his further campaigns. The English, in an alliance with the Duke of Burgundy, soon controlled much of northern France. 

It was the regime of Henry V and his son, Henry VI, that Joan of Arc sought to overthrow. After some initial successes on the battlefield, she was captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, and held at Rouen Castle from December 23, 1430, until her martyrdom on May 30, 1431. 

The illustration above identifies two of the towers. Joan’s prison cell was in the smaller tower, the Tour de la Pucelle.

The donjon, the large central tower, was the castle keep. It is the only part of the castle to survive its demolition, which began in the late sixteenth century. Today, the donjon is a tourist attraction known as the Tour Jeanne d’Arc. Joan is known to have been in the donjon only once, to be threatened with instruments of torture.

The Tour de la Pucelle survived the demolition, at least in part, until the early nineteenth century. The illustration below, from the Bulletin des Amis des Monuments Rouennais (1910), gives 1809 as the date of its demolition. 

The tower’s foundations remained in place until 1912, when a developer began to excavate the site to build an office building, as seen below:

Today, there is a plaque and relief carving of Rouen Castle above the modest entrance to the office building at 102 Rue Jeanne d’Arc. Inside, one may view a few stones from the foundations along with the remains of a well that once provided water for the tower.

102 Rue Jeanne d’Arc in Rouen, exterior and interior. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

How did a stone from the Tour de la Pucelle make its way from Rouen’s Place de la Pucelle to New York’s Amsterdam Avenue?  Enter the members of the Joan of Arc Statue Committee.

The Joan of Arc Statue Committee

In 1909, a small group of civic-minded New Yorkers formed the Joan of Arc Statue Committee with the intention of raising a public monument to mark the quincentennial of Joan’s birth. (While there is no written record of Joan’s birth date, a long tradition has it as the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 1412.) The committee’s efforts would result in an equestrian statue of Joan on Manhattan’s Riverside Drive and, later, the sculpture in St. Martin’s Chapel.

The idea for a monument to Joan may have originated with John Sanford Saltus (1854-1922), the committee’s honorary president and primary source of funding for both statues. 

Saltus (1854-1922) was a classic Gilded Age character. Heir to a steel fortune, he was a gentleman scholar, a connoisseur and patron of the arts, the sponsor of a fencing team, and a bon vivant with a passion for masquerade balls where his elaborate costumes always won first prize. A Francophile, Saltus had an abiding fascination with Joan of Arc, which he pursued by commissioning statues of her for cities in the United States and Europe. 

It was Saltus who brought sculptor Anna Vaughn Hyatt to the committee’s attention. (This article identifies the sculptor by the name with which she signed her work prior to 1923, when she married Archer Huntington and became Anna Hyatt Huntington.) 

The committee’s president and secretary were George Frederic Kunz (1856-1932) and Edward Hagaman Hall (1858-1936). Hall was a former journalist turned historian and preservationist. Kunz was an eminent mineralogist and Tiffany & Co.’s chief advisor on gemology. Kunz and Saltus were both active in the American Numismatic Society, where Kunz was a member and Saltus, a major benefactor. 

Kunz and Hall were frequent collaborators. They were both officers of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. They had worked together to plan the Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909. In addition, Kunz and Hall were both officers of the Laymen’s Club of St. John the Divine. The guidebooks that Hall wrote for the Cathedral, and continuously updated, are still essential resources for anyone with an interest in its art and iconography

The Statue and the Stone

As the Statue Committee considered the form that the monument might take, Anna Hyatt was working in Paris on a sculpture of Joan that would become the basis for the bronze equestrian statue that now overlooks Riverside Drive at West 93^rd Street. 

It may have been destined that Hyatt (1876-1973) would become a renowned sculptor of animals, for her mother was an artist and her father a professor of zoology at Harvard University. 

Hyatt studied sculpture at the New York’s Art Students League with Gutzon Borglum, among other instructors, and spent many days at the Bronx Zoo observing the anatomy of animals. In 1906 she traveled to Paris, where she worked on animal subjects for the next four years.

In 1910, she exhibited her equestrian statue of Joan of Arc at the prestigious annual exhibition known as the Salon. The following account of the work is from the catalog for an exhibition of her sculpture at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery:

Anna Hyatt Huntington told stories about her long search for the perfect horse. Candidates were rejected because they were too small or too delicate. Finally, the artist found one massive enough … The monumental sculpted horse she exhibited at the 1910 Paris Salon was indeed astonishingly large. It proved, however, to be only an accessory to its rider, Joan of Arc. Clad in armor from head to toe, she rose from her steed to raise a weapon to heaven … Despite the Salon jury’s doubts about whether she could have executed the life-size sculpture all by herself, they awarded her an honorable mention.

J. Sanford Saltus saw Hyatt’s work at the Salon and recommended her to the Statue Committee, which commissioned her to proceed in 1913. The finished work follows its antecedent closely with some minor alterations. To ensure historical accuracy, Hyatt studied the armor in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hyatt’s niece, Clara Hunter Hyatt, posed for the figure of Joan astride a barrel that stood in for the horse. The fire department of Gloucester, Massachusetts provided a horse to model for the magnificently muscular steed carrying Joan into battle.

Architect John van Pelt was commissioned to design the statue’s base of Mohegan granite from a quarry in Yorktown, New York. The same quarry supplied much of the granite for St. John the Divine, as Roger Murphy explains elsewhere on the Divine Stone site: https://divinestone.org/blog/mohegan-golden-granite/ 

Meanwhile in Rouen, builders were laying plans to construct an office building on the site of the Tour de la Pucelle. By this time, only the tower’s foundations were intact. When the news reached Kunz in 1912, he contacted the owners of the property. 

The property owners put Kunz in touch with Jean de Beaurepaire, who was conducting an archaeological survey of the site prior to demolition. Beaurepaire was a nephew of Charles Robillard de Beaurepaire, an eminent historian of Rouen and the author of a study of Joan’s heresy trial. Beaurepaire ultimately salvaged many of the stones and arranged for 229 limestone blocks to be shipped to New York in 1914. 

Some of the stones – it is unclear how many – were incorporated into the statue’s base. The base also incorporates a stone from Reims Cathedral, where Joan stood alongside Charles VII at his coronation as the rightful king of France. The finished base bears an inscription with the particulars of Joan’s birth and death. On the day I stopped by, a previous visitor had adorned the base with a rose of red,  the liturgical color of martyrdom.

At least one of the stones from Rouen made its way to St. John the Divine. In the Cathedral’s archives, I came across a copy of the committee’s press release for the dedication of the statue in 1915. At the bottom of the page is a handwritten note from Hall to a Mr.  Nash (presumed to be Rev. E. Briggs Nash, the Cathedral’s Canon Sacrist 1914-1921):  “Would the Cathedral like to have one of these JOA stones for the floor of the French chapel?”

The Cathedral apparently agreed to the offer, because in December 1915, Kunz sent a typewritten letter to Dean William Grosvenor confirming the stone’s authenticity, stating: 

It will be a most interesting object in the French chapel, either in its natural condition or worked up into the pedestal of the statue of the Maid which, I understand, is sometime to adorn one of the niches of the arch.

Kunz added a postscript in his own hand: “Dr. Hall will select the finest piece that we have suitable for your purposes.”

The historic stone in St. Martin’s Chapel preceded the statue of Joan by six years. It was not until May 1921 that the Cathedral’s Committee on the Fabric received a letter from Kunz, who wrote on behalf of the Statue Committee to offer a gift of a sculpture of Joan for the chapel, “the statue to take the form of a kneeling figure facing one of the walls of the chapel.”

Hyatt was retained to create the sculpture, which she completed in 1922. The posture and placement proposed by Kunz was reconsidered after consultation with architect Ralph Adams Cram. This time Hyatt’s model was Renee Weill, a dancer with the ballet troupe of Michel Fokine. Joan’s face is Hyatt’s  idealization. The idea of incorporating the stone into the statue’s base was abandoned in favor of leaving it be, though with one corner slightly chiseled down.

The roughly-cut stone – such a contrast to the chapel’s sleek stone surfaces – may be the closest we will ever come to having a tangible connection to Joan’s earthly life. Due to the nature of her death, there are no genuine relics of Joan’s person. Strictly speaking, the stone probably does not qualify as a relic. There is no evidence that Joan ever touched it or that the randomly-selected stone was once in her cell (as the chapel’s signage has it).

Nevertheless, some visitors sense an aura of holiness around the stone. It affects not only the faithful but even the irreligious. When I bring visitors to the chapel and explain the stone’s significance, they are often visibly moved. Some reach out to touch it, as medieval pilgrims might have done in the presence of a sacred object.

Six hundred years after her death, Joan’s story continues to fascinate, judging from the torrent of historical, novelistic, artistic, dramatic, and cinematic works about her. There are still many who might agree with the opinion expressed by Mark Twain, one of her greatest admirers, that Joan of Arc was “easily and by far the most extraordinary person the human race has ever produced.”

Thanks to diocesan archivist Wayne Kempton for access to the archival sources consulted for this article.

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Sources

Publications: Butler, Declan. “Joan of Arc’s relics exposed as forgery, Nature, April 5, 2007 ● Bradbury, Jim. Philip Augustus: King of France 1180-1223 (London: Longman, 1998)  ● Farmer, David Hugh. The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978) ● Higonnet, Anne. Goddess, Heroine, Beast: Anna Hyatt Huntington’s New York Sculpture (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014) ● Sypher, Francis J., Jr. Strangers & Pilgrims: A Centennial History of the Laymen’s Club (New York: The Laymen’s Club, 2012)  ● Twain, Mark. Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989) ● “Joan of Arc Statue Here,” New York Times, December 8, 1922. Digital Sources: Donjon de Rouen site https://www.donjonderouen.com/histoire/ ● NYC Department of Parks & Recreation site https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/riverside-park/monuments/819  ● Newman Numismatic Portal – Saltus bio https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/PersonDetail/1702  ● Salmagundi Club – Saltus bio https://salmagundi.org/comedy-and-tragedy-the-life-of-john-sanford-saltus/  ● Les secrets de Jeanne site https://www.jeannedomremy.fr/  ●Syracuse University – Anna Hyatt Huntington Papers http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/h/huntington_ah.htm  Cathedral Archives: Joan of Arc Statue Committee Press release, December 4, 1915, and dedication pamphlet, December 6, 1915 ● Letter from George Kunz to Dean Grosvenor, December 13, 1915.● Letter from George Kunz, May 24, 1921. ● Letter to Dean Morton re model for Joan of Arc statue, February 27, 1990. ● Minutes of the Committee on the Fabric 1915-1922.

Mark Saxe was as good a friend to the stone cutters, carvers and fixers at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine as there could be. He had a powerful belief that their unique work deserved recognition in a tangible form. To that end, he recruited me some six years ago to help. He coined the title Divine Stone for the project and the divinestone blog was created to showcase the research, let the men and women who worked on the Cathedral know that their story was emerging and would hopefully lead to a published manuscript. Since then, Mark and I have shared many a conversation about the work and the people in that “Dean Morton” stoneyard. I am working on that manuscript along with the many contributors to Divinestone. We have been blessed to team up with Robert F. Rodriguez as co-author providing his stories as well as his wonderful images.

Mark’s passing has brought forth many tributes from sculptors and artists and people who knew him. He was my friend for the last 19 years and my stone carving teacher for the last 10 years. I will miss so many things about him, nothing more so than the Sunday lunches we shared in his stone yard.

Mark was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, the grandson of Jewish immigrants from Odessa, Ukraine. He served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and was honorably discharged in 1968. As a soldier, he had written poetry, but as a veteran he felt that words failed him. Wandering around Europe, it was the carved stone of the cathedrals and monuments that seemed to him a kind of medicine, calming and focusing his energy and imagination away from war and towards the miracle of creation. He went on to receive his MFA on the GI Bill from the Institute Allende in Mexico, followed by a three-year apprenticeship with a stonemason in Massachusetts, before setting up shop in Dixon, NM.

Mark established Southwest Stoneworks in 1979, specializing in architectural stonework and historic stone restoration. Over the decades, he earned a lasting reputation for exceptional work among architects, building contractors, and northern New Mexico’s rich mix of residents.

Mark told me that he traveled to several stone carving workshops around the country to learn more about the techniques of carving. On those trips, he met Kazutaka Uchida of Japan who had a profound impact on Mark. At a workshop in Vermont he met Fred X. Brownstein, who had studied extensively in Italy. Both of these sculptors became important to Mark’s future workshops, sharing their extensive knowledge, depth of thought, aesthetic sensibilities and friendship. When Mark returned from that Vermont trip the idea that he could bring these world-class instructors to his stone yard, put on a workshop, learn more himself and not have to travel took shape. In 2001, Mark realized a long-held dream in founding Sax Stone Carving Workshops. (Sax is Latin for stone.) The first guest instructor was Patrick Plunkett, stone carver at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. from 1975 to 1988, and was superintendent of stone restoration at the White House. Nicholas Fairplay and Joseph Kincannon, carvers from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, were frequent instructors. Always generous in sharing his knowledge and love of stone, Mark deepened and expanded the reach of his chosen field and attracted a devoted family of stone carvers. It was during the 25th Annual Stonecarving Workshop that Mark passed away peacefully at his home in nearby Ojo Sarco.

“It is said that there is no one who is not better off for having spent time in the presence of stone. With that as our guiding belief, we keep chipping away. Working with stone is never time wasted.”

– Mark Ian Saxe

In 2023, Mark received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, recognizing his profound impact on the community both as a sculptor and a teacher. As a sculptor, he found in stone a world where stories and emotions could unfold, a realm where the known and the mysterious could converge. Whether a 15-ton monolith of Washington State basalt or a few pounds of Indiana limestone, his pieces contain a quiet grandeur.

Always humble and humorous, he was interviewed about his work by videographer Christopher Roybal upon being notified of the Governor’s Award. In this short video, Mark sums up his approach to a lifetime of working with stone. Please CLICK HERE TO WATCH

While working on a project with Santa Fe architect, John Barton, Mark got a chance to visit the stoneyard at the Cathedral. Some years later, he wrote this essay for Divine Stone:

In His Own Words

“My connection to the stoneyard began in the late 1980’s when John Barton, AIA, the son-in-law of the Dean of the Cathedral, James Parks Morton, invited me to see the stone working program. I was offered a place to stay in the Bishop’s guest quarters and visited the stone shed attached to the Cathedral several times. 

“John introduced me to the cutters and carvers. I remember no names, only the intensity and dedication that showed in the faces. It was likely that I met Jose Tapia, Tim Smith and Eddie P. They were working…cutting and carving some of the thousands of stones necessary to complete the Cathedral’s towers. I wished I was one of them, but it was not to be, living in New Mexico with a stone masonry business that needed me and I needed it. However, my connection to the stoneyard has continued since that tour.

I would have traded places with any one of them

– Mark Saxe

“The light filtering down from the skylights, the fine dust of limestone in the air and the tap, tap, tap of hammer on chisel was mesmerizing. The vibe was intoxicating, especially to me who had already spent the last 13 years working with stone. I would have traded places with any of those carvers but I had a home and business to take care of. Upon leaving the Cathedral I had a feeling that we would meet again in the future. That experience had a profound effect on me and because of it I met many people who worked on the Cathedral, most notably Joseph Kincannon, Nick Fairplay, and John Barton. All of them have added to my life and work.” – Mark Saxe

Mark is survived by his wife, Betsy Willams, professional artist and ceramist. Betsy is the Co-Director of the Sax Stone Carving Workshops. Betsy plans on continuing Mark’s legacy and all he has established with the workshops. The website, Sax Stone Carving, will indicate dates and information for the 26th Annual Workshop when they are available.

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