Divine Stone

Bishop Manning and Construction of the Nave

Post author By Roger Murphy
Post date January 13, 2023
1 Comment on Bishop Manning and Construction of the Nave

Bishop Manning and the Construction of the Nave — Portrait of Bishop Manning – 1930

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.

Bishop Manning and Construction of the Nave

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 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.

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.

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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
Strangers and Pilgrims, Francis J. Sypher, Jr.

Profiles in Stone

Ralph Adams Cram

Post author By Roger Murphy
Post date December 22, 2022

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 — 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.

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 Buttresses — 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

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
Gotham Gothic: An Appreciation of Ralph Adams Cram, Thomas Fedorek

Divine Stone

The Remaining Chapels of the Tongues

Post author By Roger Murphy
Post date December 8, 2022
2 Comments on The Remaining Chapels of the Tongues

We covered the first two chapels built and consecrated in a previous blog, the Chapel of St. Saviour and the Chapel of St. Columba. Private subscriptions built all but one of the seven Chapels of the Tongues. Public subscriptions created the funds for construction of the Chapel of St. Ansgar. The languages of the first immigrant groups to arrive in New York are the reason for the theme of the chapels. Despite diverse languages, these immigrants came together in their worship. They are more human in scale and intimate in their presentation than the main Cathedral. The donors could use their own architect and the subsequent designs. Their construction could proceed separate from the overall construction of the Cathedral. Below are the remaining Chapels of the Tongues.

The Chapel of St. James

Henry Vaughan designed this chapel, dedicated 0n May 2, 1916. The exterior is rectangular in plan. It has a crenelated parapet at the roof and pinnacles on buttresses. It is pure English Gothic architecture of the 14th century. The interior walls are Bedford Indiana Limestone. It is 60 feet ling and 39 feet wide. This chapel seats 250 and has its own Skinner organ. The chapel was the gift of Elizabeth Scrivian Potter, wife of Bishop Henry Codman Potter.

The altar is gray Knoxville Tennessee marble and has elaborate limestone reredos. The tomb of Bishop Potter is in the chapel. It is Siena marble with the figure of the Bishop in Serevezza marble.

Many special people have been married in the chapel dedicated to the Spanish immigrants and the patron saint of Spain.

The Chapel of St. Ambrose

Carrere & Hastings designed the chapel, dedicated to the Italian community of New York City. It is considered Modern Renaissance style. The dedication of the chapel occurred in 1914. Sara Whiting Rives gifted the chapel.

The exterior of the Chapel of St. Ambrose is characterized by the half round windows. The Chapel is 50 feet long by 27 feet wide. The floor is inlaid with grey Siena, red Verona and cream colored cenere marble. Rosata marble lines the side walls. The altar and retable are of white alabaster.

The Chapel of St. Martin of Tours

On the exterior there are fleur de lis in quatrefoils. There are large, narrow pointed arch windows with single lights in the basement. The chapel honors French speaking immigrants. Clementina Furniss gifted the chapel designed by Cram & Ferguson and dedicated in 1918. As a Roman soldier, St. Martin clothed a beggar with half his cloak. This chapel,reserved for private devotion, is not included on any tour for visitors.

The interior style is 13th Century Gothic. The pavement is Tennessee pink marble, bordered by Belgian black marble. Indiana limestone lines the interior walls. In the chapel is the statue of Joan of Arc by Anna Hyatt Huntington. Sitting near the statue is a rough stone from the Rouen cell that imprisoned her. The free standing marble altar stands on red marble pillars.

The Chapel of St. Boniface

The exterior features Gutzon Borglum statues in niches of buttresses. They are Charlemagne, Alcuin, Gutenberg and Luther. The chapel dedicated on February 29, 1916 honors German speaking immigrants. The George Sullivan Bowdoin family gifted the chapel. Henry Vaughn designed This chapel. It is a pure specimen of English Gothic architecture of the 14th Century. Vaughn was the original architect for the Washington National Cathedral.

Indiana limestone walls are the interior. The pavement, sanctuary steps and altar consist of pink Knoxville marble with a heavy black border of Belgian marble. The altar is of grey Tennessee marble. The chapel is 48.5 feet long by 28 feet wide.

The Chapel of St. Ansgar

The exterior is rectangular in plan with parapets of quatrefoil tracery. There are pinnacles on the buttresses. Henry Vaughan designed the chapel again in the style of 14th Century Gothic. It is 66 feet long and 41 feet wide. Public subscriptions gifted the chapel in memory of William Reed Huntington. On April 3, 1918 it was dedicated to the needs of Scandinavian Christians.

The Chapel is double-sized similar to St James Chapel. The altar and the statues of the reredos are grayTennessee marble, given by Mrs. Julia Grinnell Bowdoin. The pavement is pink Tennessee marble and mottled Vermont marble. On the ambulatory side of the entrance are statues of St. Ansgar and St. John the Baptist carved by the John Evans and Company of Boston.

Stones from the Lady Chapel of Worcester Cathedral and stones from Ely Cathedrals are located in St. Ansgar’s Chapel.

Must See

As I finish this blog, I wish I could have found more and better images of these beautiful chapels, inside and out. The combination of cut stone and carved stone along with carved wood and stained glass make these amazing structures. Each is different in design and embellishments.

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New York Public Library Digital Collection
Columbia University, Digital Images Collection
Morningside Heights: A History of Its Architecture and Development, Andrew Dolkart
A Guide to the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in the city of New York, Edward Hagaman Hall
The Living Cathedral, St. John the Divine, A History and Guide, Howard E. Quirk
Previous blog about St. Saviours and St. Columba’s Chapels. https://divinestone.org/blog/the-seven-chapels-of-tongues/

Divine Stone

From John Angel to Simon Verity

Post author By Roger Murphy
Post date November 20, 2022
1 Comment on From John Angel to Simon Verity

Where John Angel left off in 1940, Simon Verity finishes in 1996. On the left in the above image we see the anteater-like carving on the periphery of the Portal of Paradise by the sculptor John Angel. On the right, looking at the curious grotesque, we see the dog carved by Simon Verity. This intersection of carvings, some 50 years apart, calls out the difference in style between these two. Angel used the Renaissance technique of creating clay models for the carvers, then carving final details where needed. Verity, trained in the Gothic tradition, used no models. He carved directly into the stone working from sketches and drawings. This little corner of the Portal of Paradise leads us from John Angel to Simon Verity.

There is more to the story. Let’s look at a little larger view of this area.

The statue of Noah by Simon Verity is part of the Portal of Paradise statues. The face of Noah is that of James Parks Morton, Cathedral Dean. Verity used many Cathedral and neighborhood people as models. The dog is Dean Morton’s beloved Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Pepe.

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Tom Fedorek’s Video Series the Portal of paradise – Episode 4
American Gargoyles – Spirits In Stone, Darlene Tree Crist, Photography by Robert Llewellyn

Divine Stone

Where Did The Reredos Go

Post author By Roger Murphy
Post date November 5, 2022

A reredos is a decorative screen above and behind the high altar. The reredos was structurally separate from the altar ( as compared to retables, a similar paneled, decorative screen attached to the altar back). Highly carved stone or wood panels provide niches for statues and the religious iconography. We are going to explore the evolution of the Cathedral reredos and look into the question of where did the reredos go.

The image below shows the reredos under construction in June of 1909. This was a period that involved the many decorative elements of the interior of the Choir and the Chancel. Architect George Lewis Heins had died in 1907 and his partner Christopher Grant LaFarge was still supervising work on the Cathedral. Their contract, however, ended with the death of one of the partners.

Limestone, cut and carved for the screen, came from The Pierre de Lens quarry in Mouleon, France. This creamy white Oolitic limestone has a fine compact grain structure very suitable for carving and sculpture.

Sculpted Clay Models

Carl Bitter modeled the sculpture of Christ. Leo Lentelli of Barr, Thaw & Fraser carved it. Otto Jahnsen modeled the other figures. They were all carved by Barr, Thaw & Fraser. Following are images of those models:

Reredos Models — The finished stone figure of Christ will be seven feet high, those of Moses and John the Baptist will be six feet 5 inches.

Clay Model Moses — From the left, models for Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Moses. Old Testament figures

John the Baptist and New Testament models — From the left, models for St. John the Baptist, St. Peter, St. James, St. John. New Testament figures.

The completed reredos is part of the 1911 consecration of the partial Cathedral.

The New Architect Weighs In

The altar screen was perhaps a little underwhelming in the context of the Heins & LaFarge era Choir and Sanctuary. We know that Ralph Adams Cram, the successor consulting architect, praised those in Seville. In a letter to Bishop Manning in 1935, Cram wrote –

“Having lived in the shadow, so to speak, of the Seville reredos, I realize its incomparable majesty and its unique place in the sphere of religious art. I thought I could visualize the cathedral, when once the choir is reconstructed and the great screen taken down, with this great area of smoldering gold drawing the whole thing together”
– Ralph Adams Cram

Seville Reredos — Reredos at Seville Cathedral

Perhaps the best example of reredos is in St. Thomas Church in Manhattan. The church was designed by the partnership of Cram and Goodhue. Architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue and sculptor Lee Lawrie designed the reredos. It was carved by the Ardolino Brothers. The church opened in 1913.

St. Thomas Church reredos, Manhattan — Lee Lawrie’s reredos in the Cram and Goodhue designed St. Thomas Church at 53rd Street and 5th Avenue

Bishop Manning Presides over Removal of the Reredos

On October 14, 1945, a special service marked the new appearance of the high alter and sanctuary. Bishop Manning, clerical members, trustees and staff gathered on the steps leading to the sanctuary. A curtain hid the altar area while the altar screen was being razed. The curtain was removed to reveal an unobstructed view from the great western entrance to the eastern window at the back of the chapel of St. Saviour.

Closing the ceremony, Bishop Manning said:

The altar now stands out clearly and dominantly, as it should…those majestic columns around the apse have now come into their own. They were partly hidden and rendered ineffective by the reredos.
– Bishop William T. Manning

In closing, the Bishop expressed appreciation to Canon Edward N. West for the part he played in suggesting this important change and working with the architects to make it happen.

The Senior Guide tells us the rest of the story

Some months ago, I asked Tom Fedorek, Senior Guide and Cathedral historian, what may have happened to the carvings. As I read the words “razed” and “demolished” in various articles I feared the worse. Tom told me that there were remains and he would fill me in. He told me the cross below, now in the Bishops Green was originally atop the reredos.