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The Cathedral of St. John the Divine (sometimes referred to as St. John's and also nicknamed St. John the Unfinished) is the
cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...
of the
Episcopal Diocese of New York The Episcopal Diocese of New York is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, encompassing three New York City boroughs and seven New York state counties.
. It is at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in the
Morningside Heights Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside ...
neighborhood of
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, between West
110th Street 110th Street is a street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is commonly known as the boundary between Harlem and Central Park, along which it is known as Central Park North. In the west, between Central Park West/Frederick Doug ...
(also known as Cathedral Parkway) and West 113th Street. The cathedral is an
unfinished building An unfinished building is a building (or other architectural structure, as a bridge, a road or a tower) where construction work was abandoned or on-hold at some stage or only exists as a design. It may also refer to buildings that are currently ...
, with only two-thirds of the proposed building completed, due to several major stylistic changes work interruptions, and unstable ground on the site. The original design, in the
Byzantine Revival Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Ortho ...
and
Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...
styles, began construction in 1892. After the opening of the crossing in 1909, the overall plan was changed to a
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
design. The completion of the
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...
was delayed until 1941 due to various funding shortfalls, and little progress has occurred since then, except for an addition to the tower at the nave's southwest corner. After a large fire damaged part of the cathedral in 2001, it was renovated and rededicated in 2008. The towers above the western
elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...
of the facade, as well as the southern
transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building with ...
and a proposed steeple above the crossing, have not been completed. Despite being incomplete, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the world's sixth-largest church by area and either the largest or second-largest Anglican cathedral. The floor area of St. John's is , spanning a length of , while the roof height of the nave is . Since the cathedral's interior is so large, it has been used for hundreds of events and art exhibitions. In addition, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine has been involved in various advocacy initiatives throughout its history. The cathedral close includes numerous buildings: the Leake & Watts Orphan Asylum Building, the cathedral proper, the St. Faith's House, the Choir School, the Deanery, and the Bishop's House. The buildings are designed in several different styles and were built over prolonged periods of construction, with the Leake & Watts Orphan Asylum predating the cathedral itself. The cathedral close was collectively designated an official city landmark by the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
in 2017.


History


Context


Site

The neighborhood of
Morningside Heights Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside ...
was thinly settled in the 17th century by the Dutch, then by the British. It remained rural through the mid-19th century, with two exceptions. The first was the
Bloomingdale Insane Asylum The Bloomingdale Insane Asylum (1821–1889) was an American private hospital for the care of the mentally ill, founded by New York Hospital. It was located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, where Columbia U ...
, no longer extant, which opened on the site of the
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
campus near 116th Street in 1821. The other was Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum, bounded by 110th Street to the south and 113th Street to the north, which later became the current cathedral site. The Leake and Watts asylum was incorporated in 1831 under act of the
New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an officia ...
, and three years later, land at the corner of Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) and 110th Street was purchased from the Bloomingdale Asylum. The initial plans for the asylum were drawn up by
Ithiel Town Ithiel Town (October 3, 1784 – June 13, 1844) was an American architect and civil engineer. One of the first generation of professional architects in the United States, Town made significant contributions to American architecture in the f ...
, but were revised several times to keep the costs within the asylum's budget. The cornerstone of the asylum was laid in 1838, and it was completed in 1843.


Need for a cathedral

Meanwhile, the
Episcopal Diocese of New York The Episcopal Diocese of New York is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, encompassing three New York City boroughs and seven New York state counties.
started to grow in the early 19th century: there were 26 Episcopal parishes in the city by 1800, and a decade later, that number had nearly doubled to 50. In 1828, the first proposal for a grand cathedral for the diocese was made by Bishop
John Henry Hobart John Henry Hobart (September 14, 1775 – September 12, 1830) was the third Episcopal bishop of New York (1816–1830). He vigorously promoted the extension of the Episcopal Church in upstate New York, as well as founded both the General Th ...
, who proposed a site near
Washington Square Park Washington Square Park is a public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City's public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. ...
. The church would be called the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, or St. John's Cathedral for short, after the Revelation by
John of Patmos John of Patmos (also called John the Revelator, John the Divine, John the Theologian) is the name traditionally given to the author of the Book of Revelation. The text of Revelation states that John was on Patmos, a Greek island where, accordin ...
(also called "John the Divine"). The plans were canceled because of objections over erecting such a large building for the diocese, a derivative of the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...
, even as many New Yorkers still harbored resentment over the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
. In 1873, a cathedral board of trustees was established under Bishop
Horatio Potter Horatio Potter (February 9, 1802 – January 2, 1887), was an educator and the sixth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Dearth of biographical information Potter "shrank from public notice, left no literary monument and has, regrettabl ...
. The board decided on property just south of
Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...
, bounded by 59th Street to the north and 57th Street to the south. However, the purchase was canceled after the would-be donors lost their savings in the
Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the ...
. Yet another plot of land, at Eighth Avenue and 74th Street, was offered to the church in 1882, but rejected due to the high cost of acquisition. By 1890, there were 40,000 Episcopalians in Manhattan, and Episcopalians made up the largest bloc of Protestants in the borough. Furthermore, many imposing institutions were being built in New York City, such as the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
,
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...
, Metropolitan Opera House, and the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 int ...
.


Planning


Site selection

When
Henry C. Potter Henry Codman Potter (May 25, 1834 – July 21, 1908) was a bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States. He was the seventh bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Potter was "more praised and appreciated, perhaps, than any public man ...
, Horatio Potter's nephew, became the Diocese of New York's assistant bishop in 1883, he convened the trustees to look for an alternate site. On June 1, 1887, Henry Potter publicly announced his intention to build St. John's, though the exact location was still to be determined. Potter described the planned cathedral as an "American Westminster Abbey" that would rival the Catholic St. Patrick's Cathedral in
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...
. In his announcement, Potter called on New Yorkers to give funds toward the new cathedral, which was expected to cost $10 million. The plans for the cathedral were well received by both Protestants and non-Protestants, as well as the media and other denominational leaders. The donors included the wealthy
Astor Astor may refer to: People * Astor (surname) * Astor family, a wealthy 18th-century American family who became prominent in 20th-century British politics * Astor Bennett, a character in the Showtime television series ''Dexter'' * Ástor Piazzo ...
, Vanderbilt, and Belmont families. Additionally, the
Barberini family The House of Barberini are a family of the Italian nobility that rose to prominence in 17th century Rome. Their influence peaked with the election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne in 1623, as Pope Urban VIII. Their urban palace ...
's tapestries were gifted to the cathedral in 1891. Numerous sites in Manhattan were examined for the new cathedral's location, and by 1889, the Leake and Watts Asylum between 110th and 113th Streets had been chosen as the site for the future site of St. John's. News media such as ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' and ''Uptown Visitor'' praised the decision, as the site was located on a high point overlooking Central and Morningside Parks. The committee had wanted to build slightly further north, on a more elevated plot between 116th Street to the south and 119th Street to the north. However, that plot would be too difficult to acquire, as ownership of that tract was divided among several entities; by contrast, the Leake and Watts Asylum had full control over their entire city block. The asylum site was deeded to the cathedral in October 1891, and the asylum moved to
Westchester County, New York Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...
. The asylum site was then acquired for $850,000. At the time, Morningside Heights was quickly being developed as a residential neighborhood surrounded by numerous higher-education institutions. The proposed cathedral's elevated location would have been visible from
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...
, across the
Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...
to the west, as well as from the
New York Bay New York Bay is the large tidal body of water in the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary where the Hudson River, Raritan River, and Arthur Kill empty into the Atlantic Ocean between Sandy Hook and Rockaway Point. Geography New York Bay is usu ...
to the south.


Architecture competition

Simultaneously, there was also debate over the new cathedral's style; because of the larger plot and more remote location from Midtown Manhattan it was expected to be more elaborate than St. Patrick's. The trustees had formed a Committee on Architecture in conjunction with
William Robert Ware William Robert Ware (May 27, 1832 – June 9, 1915), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts into a family of the Unitarian clergy, was an American architect, author, and founder of two important American architectural schools. He received his o ...
, a Columbia architecture professor, which held a design competition for St. John that involved several prominent architectural firms. Though everyone was free to enter the competition, fourteen firms and architects were paid $500 each to create designs for the cathedral. The deadline for each plan was January 1889. That May, the board of trustees formed a committee to review the more than 60 designs that had been submitted. Many of the competitors were American, though only four were experienced in cathedral construction. The board members then discussed the designs privately; some architects expressed concerns about the secret consultations, since the trustees generally did not have knowledge of architectural design. The competition was narrowed down to four finalists. Namely, these were "Gerona" by William A. Potter and R. H. Robertson; "Three Arabesque Scrolls within a Circle" by George L. Heins and Christopher Grant LaFarge with William Winthrop Kent; "AMDG" by George M. Huss and J. H. Buck; and "Jerusalem the Golden" by
William Halsey Wood William Halsey Wood (April 24, 1855 – March 13, 1897) was an American architect. Early life Wood was the youngest of four sons born to Daniel Halsey Wood and Hannah Lippincott Wood. Shortly after his birth in 1855, the family relocated from ...
. "Gerona" used the
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
style based on Spanish cathedrals; "AMDG" and "Jerusalem the Golden" were in a regular Gothic style, and "Three Arabesque Scrolls" was mainly
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
. Potter and Robertson were the only one of the four finalists who had significant experience at the time, and the trustees had agreed not to release any designs without the consent of all competitors, although some contestants broke the agreement anyway by revealing their designs to the media. The finalists were given more than a year to refine the details of their plans: the original deadline was set for February 1890, but was later extended to November after a failed proposal to host the
World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
in Morningside Park. The submissions were placed in public view in April 1891. By then, the public was losing interest in the competition, and the finalist designs mainly received negative criticism.


Plan selected

In July 1891, the plan-selection committee chose Heins & LaFarge's plan as the winning proposal. The design had been the trustees' second choice; although the trustees liked Potter and Robertson's plan more, W. A. Potter was the bishop's half-brother and the trustees did not want to be accused of nepotism. To Kent's consternation, he was initially not recognized as a co-collaborator, and would not be acknowledged as such until the following year. The group's blueprints called for chapels and end sections with
apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...
s; a crossing containing four round arches as well as a dome topped by a massive tower; and
transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building with ...
s with round edges. The interior was based upon Boston's Trinity Church, and the crossing was based upon Istanbul's
Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia ( 'Holy Wisdom'; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque ( tr, Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi), is a mosque and major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The cathedral was originally built as a Greek Ortho ...
, Venice's
St. Mark's Basilica The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark ( it, Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco), commonly known as St Mark's Basilica ( it, Basilica di San Marco; vec, Baxéłega de San Marco), is the cathedral church of the Catholic Pat ...
, and the Périgueux Cathedral. The "exotic" design was seen as an example of the unusual architecture that was prevalent at that time. It was also Heins & LaFarge's first major commission: the firm later designed structures such as the
Astor Court The Astor Court, located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, is a re-creation of a Ming dynasty-style, Chinese-garden courtyard. It is also known as the Ming Hall (明軒). The first permanent cultural exchange between the U.S ...
buildings at the
Bronx Zoo The Bronx Zoo (also historically the Bronx Zoological Park and the Bronx Zoological Gardens) is a zoo within Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York. It is one of the largest zoos in the United States by area and is the largest metropolitan zoo in ...
, as well as the early stations of the
Interborough Rapid Transit Company The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the private operator of New York City's original underground subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT ...
, the first operator of the present-day
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October ...
. That October, the trustees directed the firm to revise their design further. The following month, it was announced that work would begin in early 1892, provided that Heins & LaFarge submitted their revised plans that April. The original plans were then substantially revised because the board of trustees wanted a Gothic-style appearance. The western towers were modified to remove the spires and enlarge the windows, and various Gothic details were placed on the facade. The nave was realigned from north–south to east–west so that the
apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...
would face east, in the direction of the sunrise, to represent the
resurrection of Jesus The resurrection of Jesus ( grc-x-biblical, ἀνάστασις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lo ...
as per Episcopal tradition. Heins & LaFarge objected to the realignment because it would result in the cathedral being hidden behind other buildings. In the final plan, "Three Arabesque Scrolls" incorporated both Byzantine and Romanesque influences, with Gothic detailing on the exterior. Outwardly, the design resembled the AMDG plan from Huss & Buck. By April 1892, the trustees had raised much of the $850,000 required for land acquisition, though there still remained a deficit of $175,000.


Construction and early years

Construction on the Cathedral of St. John the Divine was begun with the
cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...
-laying ceremony on December 27, 1892, St. John's Day. One thousand tickets for seats at the ceremony were distributed, though the actual attendance was 1,100. The cornerstone contained various objects such as a Bible and church papers. Potter hit the stone three times with a mallet and said "Other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid which is Jesus Christ." The following month, the remaining $175,000 for land acquisition had been secured, and the trustees moved to take title to the land, including the cathedral close around the cathedral's main building, in April. Unlike the main building, the cathedral close was not designed under a single master plan, and during the 1890s and 1900s, several proposals would be made for the site.


Initial construction

Actual work on St. John's began in early 1893. The trustees initially expected that work would proceed quickly because much of the Morningside Heights plateau was made of shallow
bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of be ...
. However, in September 1893, builders unexpectedly hit pockets of soft
shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especiall ...
and an underground spring at several locations about below ground. One of these pockets was located directly below the site for one of the four
piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
that were to support the cathedral's massive stone tower. The trustees briefly considered moving the entire cathedral slightly southward. They ultimately decided against moving the cathedral, believing it to be inauspicious if the cornerstone were to be moved. Instead, builders drilled several deep shafts until they hit the bedrock, then poured concrete pits within each shaft. The pits would then accommodate the construction of the tower's piers. The layer of bedrock was, in some cases, beneath ground level. The pits were completed in late 1895 at a significantly higher cost than originally estimated. By 1898, St. John's had cost an estimated $750,000, and as per an 1896 estimate, the cathedral was projected to cost at least $5 million when complete. As a temporary measure, the Tiffany Chapel was purchased in mid-1898 so that services could be held there. The chapel was placed in the
crypt A crypt (from Latin '' crypta'' " vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a c ...
, within the basement. The first services were held in January 1899 within the Tiffany Chapel. The crossing arches, located in the cathedral plot's eastern portion, were completed the following year, though three of the arches were temporarily sealed off until the transepts and nave could be completed. By then, some $2 million had already been spent, even though little appeared to have been completed. Despite large donations from prominent figures such as financiers
John Jacob Astor IV John Jacob Astor IV (July 13, 1864 – April 15, 1912) was an American business magnate, real estate developer, investor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish–American War, and a prominent member of the Astor family. He died in the sink ...
and
William Waldorf Astor William Waldorf "Willy" Astor, 1st Viscount Astor (31 March 1848 – 18 October 1919) was an American-British attorney, politician, businessman (hotels and newspapers), and philanthropist. Astor was a scion of the very wealthy Astor family of ...
, governor
Levi P. Morton Levi Parsons Morton (May 16, 1824 – May 16, 1920) was the 22nd vice president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He also served as United States ambassador to France, as a U.S. representative from New York, and as the 31st Governor of New ...
, banker
J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...
, and businessman
Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...
, the trustees continued to raise funds. In March 1903, the trustees announced that the next stage of St. John's construction would require $500,000 for building the choir and $200,000 for completing the loft, and that eight massive
granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...
columns would need to be procured to support the roof over the choir. Furthermore, the trustees would build three arches to support the rest of the roof. The choir columns, sourced from
Vinalhaven, Maine Vinalhaven is a town on the larger of the two Fox Islands in Knox County, Maine, United States. Vinalhaven is also used to refer to the island itself. The population was 1,279 at the 2020 census. It is home to a thriving lobster fishery and ...
, were each tall with a diameter. At the time, they were the world's second-largest stone columns, but because of their size, three of the columns were cracked while being turned. The columns were then transported using a specially constructed barge towed by the large
steam tug A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...
''
Clara Clarita ''Clara Clarita'' was a fast screw steamer originally built as a luxury steam yacht for New York City financier Leonard Jerome (grandfather of British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill). On her trial trip, ''Clara Clarita''s original engine pr ...
''. When the columns arrived at Manhattan in July and August 1903, they were rolled onto flatbed trucks and brought to the cathedral's site. Since the builders did not have a
derrick A derrick is a lifting device composed at minimum of one guyed mast, as in a gin pole, which may be articulated over a load by adjusting its guys. Most derricks have at least two components, either a guyed mast or self-supporting tower, and ...
that was strong enough to lift the column pieces, they placed another order for wood to build a strong-enough derrick. The columns were finally lifted in July 1904, more than a year after the initial announcement. The walls could not be placed until after the columns had been installed. Work also began in 1903 on the crossing ceiling, which was to contain "
Guastavino tile The Guastavino tile arch system is a version of Catalan vault introduced to the United States in 1885 by Spanish architect and builder Rafael Guastavino (1842–1908). It was patented in the United States by Guastavino in 1892. Description ...
s" designed by Spanish architect
Rafael Guastavino Rafael Guastavino Moreno (; March 1, 1842 February 1, 1908) was a Spanish building engineer and builder who immigrated to the United States in 1881; his career for the next three decades was based in New York City. Based on the Catalan vault, ...
. The board of trustees implemented a new charter in early 1904, which provided for greater representation of laypeople on the board. By 1905, with $800,000 available for construction, the trustees anticipated that the cathedral would be completed within a decade. The church's great organ was ordered from
Skinner Skinner may refer to: People and fictional characters *Skinner (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with that surname * Skinner (profession), a person who makes a living by working with animal skins or driving mules *Skinner, a rin ...
the following year at a cost of $50,000, following a gift by the Morton family. It was almost completed by 1911 with nearly 7,000 pipes; the cost of the organ had risen to $70,000. Work also continued on the exterior walls of the choir and the seven surrounding chapels in the
apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...
, which required of granite. Builders estimated that of stone would have been used for the walls once work was completed.
Gutzon Borglum John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American sculptor best known for his work on Mount Rushmore. He is also associated with various other public works of art across the U.S., including Stone Mountain in Georg ...
was commissioned for some of the initial sculptural elements on St. John's, though his relation with the trustees was strained: he destroyed two angels after criticism of his work and threatened to quit in 1906. Because of the delays in construction, members of the public began to question the necessity of constructing such a large cathedral. With little progress to show for, public sentiment began to turn against the cathedral. Even the trustees started to have doubts about certain aspects of the plan, criticizing Heins & LaFarge's small staff, their simultaneous involvement in many other projects, slow construction, and cost overruns.


Crossing opening and change in design

Although Heins died in 1907, LaFarge continued to design the crossing, choir, and apse of St. John's. By then, the architectural preferences of the public were shifting away from the original design. Additionally, communication between LaFarge and the trustees were deteriorating, with several trustees calling for LaFarge's removal. The choir was covered in 1908, and the crossing was installed the next year. The choir was nearly complete by October 1909, but there were insufficient funds to complete its construction, delaying its opening by at least six months. At that time, St. John's was earning about $24,000 per year and had a $500,000 endowment, while at least $1 million was needed to complete construction. In March 1911, trustees finally confirmed an opening date of April 19, 1911. The first service in the choir and crossing, the
consecration Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...
of the choir, occurred as scheduled on that day. The completed portions of the cathedral were widely praised, though few newspapers devoted extensive coverage to the event, except the ''
New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the '' New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. Hi ...
''. A month after the choir's consecration, the trustees suddenly fired LaFarge, commissioning
Ralph Adams Cram Ralph Adams Cram (December 16, 1863 – September 22, 1942) was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic Revival style. Cram & Ferguson and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson are partne ...
to take LaFarge's place as lead architect of St. John's. The trustees had exercised a clause in their contract with Heins & LaFarge, enabling them to hire another architect if either partner were to die. LaFarge was not made aware of the matter beforehand, and was only notified via a cable sent by his partner Benjamin Wistar Morris. The original Byzantine-Romanesque design was changed to a
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
design, and Cram was asked to convert many existing features to Gothic style. The move was criticized in the local media, who claimed that the trustees and Cram had been conspiring to eject LaFarge from the lead architect position. However, ''The New York Sun'' reported that Cram had only reluctantly accepted the commission because the trustees had threatened to hire a foreign architect otherwise. Cram presented a master plan for the cathedral close's buildings in October 1911, and his revised designs for the main structure were completed in 1913. Regardless, there was still not enough money to complete the cathedral's construction, as the New York Episcopal Diocese Cathedral League had mentioned in 1912 that $5.5 million was still needed. The diocese was able to construct several structures to the south of the main building (see ), as part of a plan that had been approved by the trustees in late 1911. These structures included the St. Faith's House (1909), Synod House (1911–1913), Cathedral School (1912–1913), and Cathedral House (1912–1914).


Nave and north transept

By January 1916, Bishop David H. Greer announced that the diocese would construct St. John's nave and
narthex The narthex is an architectural element typical of early Christian and Byzantine basilicas and churches consisting of the entrance or lobby area, located at the west end of the nave, opposite the church's main altar. Traditionally the narth ...
, along with a pair of towers on the western
elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...
of the facade above the narthex. The project would cost $1.5 million, even though St, John's only had about $200,000 on hand as of June 1915. A groundbreaking ceremony for the nave was held on May 8, 1916. That November, construction stopped due to material and funding shortages during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, and the trustees had decided against raising funds until after the war. Cram edited his plans in the interim. In February 1919, the trustees approved Cram's revised plan to incorporate a memorial for soldiers. The new plans required $5–6 million, but would make St. John's the third- or fourth-largest worldwide. The cathedral did not yet have the money to build the nave, and furthermore, in 1920 the trustees decided not to hold fundraising drives for said purpose. Because of an unstable economy, work did not resume for another four years, though both Greer and Bishop Charles Sumner Burch supported the project. In 1923, Burch's successor William T. Manning announced a $15 million capital campaign to raise money for this project. The New York campaign committee, headed by then-governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, campaigned from 1923 to 1925 to raise $6 million (). By May 1924, Manning announced that $2.5 million had been donated within the previous three months, and that work on the nave would soon begin if that rate of donation were to continue. St. John's was seeking price estimates for the nave's construction by that November, and the
baptistery In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptism ...
was donated the same year. Some $7.7 million had been raised by February 1925, and the laying of the nave's cornerstone occurred on November 9, 1925. Manning wanted the cathedral to be an interdenominational place of worship, but was still reluctant to add other denominations' members to the board of trustees. Notably, Manning rejected a request from
John D. Rockefeller Jr. John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist, and the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in M ...
, a Baptist, despite the latter's $500,000 donation toward the cathedral's building fund. In January 1927, Manning announced that the trustees had approved Cram's proposal for a square tower above the crossing; the tower would replace the dome, which did not conform to the Gothic style. With sides of , the tower would be half as wide as the arches below it. Cram's blueprint revisions, published in 1929, entailed building the square tower over the crossing, and adding two portals to the western elevation. Additionally, St. John's northern transept began construction in December 1927. Since the funds for that transept were donated solely by women, it was called the Women's Transept. Work on the Women's Transept was halted in October 1930 due to a lack of funds. Construction at St. John's was otherwise unaffected by the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. During this duration, work was concentrated mainly on the western elevation. When construction of the Women's Transept resumed in 1934, the nave and the western elevation were nearly complete except for the two towers above the western facade, but work on the crossing tower and south transept had yet to commence. By 1938, the nave was completed, but the temporary construction wall between the nave and crossing was still in place because the Byzantine-Romanesque crossing's design had yet to be harmonized with the Gothic nave. As such, Cram subsequently replaced the portions of the ceiling above the choir and the apse's eastern section. Additionally, the nave started to be used for services, even though it had not yet been dedicated. The 1939 '' WPA Guide to New York City'' stated that $20 million had been spent on the cathedral by then.


Full-length opening and expansion

The full length of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine was opened for the first time on November 30, 1941. At that time, St. John's was only three-fifths completed, yet it was the second-largest Christian church in the world by area, behind only
St. Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal e ...
in Vatican City. The event was commemorated with a week-long celebration. The last day of the celebrations, Sunday December 7, 1941, coincided with the Japan's attack on
Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...
. With the consequent entry of the United States into World War II, work on the cathedral stopped. The southern transept and tower had yet to start, while the northern transept remained one-third complete. The western towers, planned to be , reached only to the roof of the nave. Cram revised his plans yet again just before his 1942 death, this time with shorter western towers and a slim spire in place of the square tower over the crossing.


Halt in construction

Following the end of World War II, St. John's did not experience any more new construction for three decades. In 1945, Manning had attempted to start a fundraising drive for $10 million so that the remaining funds could be raised for the cathedral's completion. However, during the late 1940s, his successor Bishop Charles Kendall Gilbert turned efforts toward alleviating social issues in the vicinity of the cathedral. Rather than being focused on expansion, the cathedral became more involved in the surrounding community. By that time, a total of $19 million had been spent on construction (equivalent to $ million in ). By the 1950s, there was debate over whether to complete St. John's in the Gothic fashion of the nave; a more contemporary style; or the original Byzantine/Romanesque style. Several plans were proposed through the early 1960s, but none were examined in depth. In 1966, it was announced that work at St. John's would resume. The trustees had approved a smaller version of the western towers and the crossing, with a modern multicolored dome to be built atop the crossing. The project did not proceed, as Bishop Horace W. B. Donegan said that such work would not occur during his administration; rather, he wanted the construction money to instead go toward helping the poor. In the 1970s, the cathedral's activities turned toward improving quality of life in Morningside Heights; helping the elderly, young, and the environment; and participating in the
civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
and the
opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War (before) or anti-Vietnam War movement (present) began with demonstrations in 1965 against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War and grew into a broad social move ...
. However, when the Very Reverend
James Parks Morton James Parks Morton (January 7, 1930 – January 4, 2020) was an American Episcopal priest and founder of the Interfaith Center of New York. Cathedral of St. John the Divine Morton was dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for 25 ye ...
was installed as St. John's dean in 1973, he said that construction at St. John's would start again. Morton said he wanted St. John's to become "a holy place for the whole city". St. John's had become overcrowded because of its increasing focus on community activities, and even though the cathedral was losing $500,000 each year, Morton believed that an expansion would help make space for these extra activities.


Resumption of work

Morton announced in December 1978 that construction would soon begin on constructing the two western towers, extending their height by and bringing their total height to . The job was expected to cost $20 million and take five years. However, by then, there was a shortage of qualified stone carvers in the area. James R. Bambridge, who was hired as the stonemason, planned to employ unskilled younger workers from the surrounding community. Bambridge hired Nicholas G. Fairplay, an English stonemason, as master carver. The architect was Hoyle, Doran and Berry, the successor to Cram's architecture firm. The expansions would be based primarily on Cram's revised designs, published before his death. The north transept would be completed, but would remain separate from the main building. Work on the western facade's towers was restarted with the opening of St. John's stone yard, the Cathedral Stoneworks, which received its first several Indiana limestone blocks in June 1979. Construction started first on the south tower, named for
Saint Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
, which began to rise in 1982. However, the project continued to be delayed due to a shortage of funds, and due to slow development of the towers' designs. Work also progressed slowly because the stonemasons were carving a myriad of minute details on the south tower. By 1984, St. John's was projected to be complete in 2000. Under the leadership of master stone carvers Nicholas Fairplay,
Simon Verity Simon Verity (born 1945) is a British sculptor and master stonecarver. Much of his work has been garden sculpture. He has works in the private collections of King Charles III, Sir Elton John, and Lord Rothschild. Career Verity received his tra ...
, and Jean Claude Marchionni, work on the statuary of the central portal of the cathedral's western elevation was started in 1988 and completed in 1997. During this era, the cathedral expanded its cultural programming, hosting some 140 shows and performances in the 1987–1988 season, some of which drew up to 3,000 observers. By 1992, the construction budget had been depleted; work was halted, and the stone yard was closed. By then, another of height had been added to the south tower. While some of the scaffolding was removed, other portions remained, rusting away for fifteen years. The Very Reverend Harry H. Pritchett Jr., who succeeded Morton in 1997, decided against further expansion of St. John's, especially since the existing facilities needed $20–40 million in repairs.


21st century

On December 18, 2001, a fire swept through the unfinished north transept, destroying the gift shop and damaging tapestries. Despite the damage sustained, St. John's reopened two weeks later. Though the
pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks' ...
was not damaged, all its pipes and other component parts were removed and restored. Valuable tapestries and other items in the cathedral were damaged by the smoke. In January 2005, the cathedral began a major restoration to not only remove smoke damage resulting from the 2001 fire, but also clean the 80 years of dirt accumulation in the nave. The renovations temporarily depleted St. John's funds: the unaffected portions of the cathedral started to deteriorate, staff salary raises were deferred, and several staff positions were eliminated. The scaffolding around the south tower was removed in 2007, and the cathedral was rededicated on November 30, 2008. The cathedral's main building was made a city landmark in June 2003, but the designation was overturned that October, since it did not cover the entire cathedral close. At the same time, St. John's officials wanted to lease out the lots at the northern and southern borders of the cathedral close for further development, a move that preservationists unsuccessfully attempted to prevent. Ultimately, two residential buildings were erected on these lots: Avalon Morningside Park on the southern lot and the Enclave on the northern lot. In 2017, the cathedral close was re-designated a city landmark, except for the two new residential buildings. The next year, the first phase of the north transept's renovation was finally completed, and work began on a renovation of the crypt. On April 14, 2019, a small fire occurred in the crypt; except for smoke damage, the cathedral building was mostly unaffected. Many artworks stored in the crypt were reportedly damaged or destroyed in the fire. An initial cleaning removed smoke damage from the bottom 10 feet of the interior of the cathedral. A cleaning of the rest of the interior was also ongoing.
Ennead Architects Ennead Architects LLP (/ˈenēˌad/) is a New York City-based architectural firm. The firm was founded in 1963 by James Polshek, who left the firm in 2005 when it was known as Polshek Partnership. The firm's partners renamed their practice in mid- ...
proposed erecting a copper dome above the crossing so that the crossing's tiles could be rehabilitated. The restoration of the dome was completed in 2022.


2020 shooting

On December 13, 2020, following the end of a choir performance outside the cathedral, a man fired guns at the crowd and was fatally shot by police; nobody else was injured.


Main structure

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is located at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in
Morningside Heights, Manhattan Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside ...
, between West 110th Street (also known as Cathedral Parkway) to the south and 113th Street to the north. The cathedral's main entrance on the west is along the same axis as 112th Street. Adjacent sites include Mount Sinai Morningside (formerly St. Luke's Hospital) to the north,
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
's Morningside Heights campus to the north and west, and Morningside Park to the east. One of the key reasons for St. John's location is that the land under it was described as the "highest point in Manhattan". One author wrote that "the view from outside tells much about St. John's inner spirit", saying that the southeastern elevation of the facade gives an impression of incompleteness, while the great western elevation was "vitalized by its incipience". St. John's is oriented west–east relative to the street grid and was originally supposed to have a
cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly describe ...
plan, with
transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building with ...
s extending to the north and south of the crossing near the eastern end of the cathedral. The entire structure measures long. From west to east, the cathedral contains a narthex measuring long by wide; a nave of ; a crossing of ; a choir of ; and the Chapel of St. Savior in the apse, measuring with an
ambulatory The ambulatory ( la, ambulatorium, ‘walking place’) is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11th ...
wide. The cathedral's western elevation is wide; if the transepts had been completed, they would have measured from end to end. The cathedral has an interior floor area of and can host 8,600 people. , these dimensions make St. John's the sixth-largest Christian cathedral in the world, and puts it in competition with
Liverpool Cathedral Liverpool Cathedral is the Cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Liverpool, built on St James's Mount in Liverpool, and the seat of the Bishop of Liverpool. It may be referred to as the Cathedral Church of Christ in Liverpool (as recorded in th ...
as being the world's largest Anglican cathedral. The original design for the cathedral was created by
Heins & LaFarge Heins & LaFarge was a New York-based architectural firm composed of the Philadelphia-born architect George Lewis Heins (1860–1907) and Christopher Grant LaFarge (1862–1938), the eldest son of the artist John La Farge. They were respons ...
. Despite being primarily
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
and Romanesque in influence, the last version of Heins & LaFarge's design contained a significantly Gothic-style appearance. The original plan at St. John's called for tiled-arch domes and
barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...
s. The crossing was to be held up by four round arches under a dome, with a tower on top. The completed cathedral was supposed to have been long and wide between transepts, while the tower would have been tall. The modern plan for the building, as it appeared upon its official opening in 1941, conforms primarily to the second design campaign from the prolific
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
architect
Ralph Adams Cram Ralph Adams Cram (December 16, 1863 – September 22, 1942) was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic Revival style. Cram & Ferguson and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson are partne ...
. The plans are based on the French Gothic style, with English Gothic accents. Cram had initially wanted to use English Gothic models, which typically placed less emphasis on vertical elements and height, and which contrasted with the extant parts of the cathedral. Cram's plan originally called for three main entrances; two spires set back from the western facade; two smaller spires on the western facade. Inside were ten full-height aisles, with a
triforium A triforium is an interior gallery, opening onto the tall central space of a building at an upper level. In a church, it opens onto the nave from above the side aisles; it may occur at the level of the clerestory windows, or it may be locat ...
and
clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...
rising to the ceiling, as well as large chapels along each side of the nave. The design provides a transition between the nave and the crossing, because the nave was to be wide, about half the width of the crossing. Cram, described as a "brilliant perfectionist", frequently revised his proposal and later spoke of Heins & LaFarge's plans as better than his own. One major change, published in 1926, called for a , square tower above the crossing and five portals on the western elevation. Another revision was published just before he died in 1942, and called for a spire above the crossing. Cram's designs were not fully built, either. The Cathedral of St. John the Divine remains only two-thirds complete and is often nicknamed ''St. John the Unfinished''.See: * * *


Narthex and western facade


Narthex

The narthex, in the westernmost portion of the cathedral facing Amsterdam Avenue, was designed by Cram. His original plans did not include a narthex, instead showing the nave continuing as far as the western facade. Inside the narthex is a large vestibule, which serves as an entrance to the nave on the east. The vestibule measures along the north–south axis and along the west–east axis. The southern part of the narthex contains the cathedral's gift shop. Above the narthex are two towers: one named for
Saint Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupat ...
to the north and the other named for
Saint Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
to the south. The north tower reaches to the roof of the nave, which is above ground level; the south tower is about taller, with the additional height having been built between 1982 and 1992. If the towers had been completed, they would have been about tall. The towers protrude slightly from the northern and southern elevations of the facade but are flush with the western elevation. On the northern and southern facades of the narthex, at the base of the towers, are stained glass windows, one on each side.


Western facade

The narthex abuts the unfinished western elevation of the facade facing Amsterdam Avenue; this facade is wide and consists of five architectural
bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...
. The bays are separated by large arched
buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...
es with
finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the apex of a dome, spire, towe ...
s at their tops, and they contain niches for the possible future installation of statues. The western elevation is divided into four vertical tiers. From bottom to top, they are the ground-level portals, on the first tier; the
gallery Gallery or The Gallery may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Art gallery ** Contemporary art gallery Music * Gallery (band), an American soft rock band of the 1970s Albums * ''Gallery'' (Elaiza album), 2014 album * ''Gallery'' (Gr ...
level, on the second tier; the large
rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window' ...
and several smaller
grisaille Grisaille ( or ; french: grisaille, lit=greyed , from ''gris'' 'grey') is a painting executed entirely in shades of grey or of another neutral greyish colour. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many g ...
and
lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet ...
s, on the third tier; and the top of the south tower and the
gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...
above the center bay, on the fourth tier. At ground level, there are five portals under arched openings. The largest of those is the center portal, called the Portal of Paradise, which contains carvings of the
transfiguration of Jesus In the New Testament, the Transfiguration of Jesus is an event where Jesus is transfigured and becomes radiant in glory upon a mountain. The Synoptic Gospels (, , ) describe it, and the Second Epistle of Peter also refers to it (). In these ...
as well as St. John and 32 biblical characters; these were carved in 1988 under Simon Verity's leadership. St. John is depicted on the
trumeau A trumeau is the central pillar or mullion supporting the tympanum of a large doorway, commonly found in medieval buildings.''Merriam-Webster Dictionary''"trumeau"/ref> An architectural feature, it is often sculpted. Gallery File:Trumeau.jpg, T ...
, or vertical pier, between the two pairs of doors within the center portal. The center portal also contains depictions of New York City skyscrapers being destroyed in an apocalypse. The center, northernmost, and southernmost portals are set within large, gabled structures with several
archivolt An archivolt (or voussure) is an ornamental moulding or band following the curve on the underside of an arch. It is composed of bands of ornamental mouldings (or other architectural elements) surrounding an arched opening, corresponding to the ...
s, or arched moldings, surrounding each portal under the gables; porches overhang the portals above the gables. The other two portals are located under simple rectangular canopy structures, located underneath grisaille windows looking into the nave. Lights salvaged from the former
Pennsylvania Station Pennsylvania Station (often abbreviated Penn Station) is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to several of its grand passenger terminals. Several are still in active use by Amtrak and other transportation services; others have been ...
illuminate the steps in front of the portals. Above the center portal, between the towers, is a rose window installed by stained glass artist
Charles Connick Charles Jay Connick (1875–1945) was a prominent American painter, muralist, and designer best known for his work in stained glass in the Gothic Revival style. Born in Springboro, Pennsylvania, Connick eventually settled in the Boston area where ...
and constructed out of 10,000 pieces of glass. With a diameter of , the rose window is the largest rose window in the U.S. Flanking the rose window on either side are two grisaille windows, each with two lancet windows under a smaller rose. The seven
archangel Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the hierarchy of angels. The word ''archangel'' itself is usually associated with the Abrahamic religions, but beings that are very similar to archangels are found in a number of other relig ...
s are depicted in the north grisaille, while the
seven churches of Asia The Seven Churches of Revelation, also known as the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse and the Seven Churches of Asia, are seven major Churches of Early Christianity, as mentioned in the New Testament Book of Revelation. All of them are located in ...
are depicted in the south grisaille. Connick had designed the grisailles as well. On the gable above the large rose window, there are lancets as well as a medallion in the middle. The two pairs of great west doors on the western elevation, set beneath the elaborate center portal, were designed between 1927 and 1931 by the designer
Henry Wilson Henry Wilson (born Jeremiah Jones Colbath; February 16, 1812 – November 22, 1875) was an American politician who was the 18th vice president of the United States from 1873 until his death in 1875 and a senator from Massachusetts from 1855 ...
. The bronze doors include a sequence of 60 relief panels, which presents scenes from the Old and New Testaments and the Apocalypse. The doors open three times per year:
Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samue ...
; St. Francis's feast day in October; and the "blessing of the bicycles" in the spring. They comprise one of four bronze-door commissions designed by Wilson before his death. St. John's great west doors were the last of the four commissions, each pair measuring some . The remaining doors on the western elevation are composed of Burmese
teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...
with
wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...
decoration.


Nave

The nave was designed by Cram, though the final plan is slightly modified from the original. It is oriented from west to east, measuring long by wide. The ceiling is above ground level, but the ridge of the roof is high. These dimensions are about the same as in the original plans, which called for floor dimensions of . a roof, and a ceiling. On the northern and southern elevations, there are four vertical "double bays", each with two columns of windows. Large arched buttresses, with two
piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
each, separate the different double bays; smaller buttresses, containing a single pier, divide each double bay into smaller "sub-bays". This alternation of large and small buttresses gives the appearance of four double bays with two sub-bays each, rather than eight singular rectangular bays. At the
arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...
level, each of the sub-bays contains an arrangement of stained glass with two
lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet ...
s under a
rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window' ...
. The sub-bays also contain another stained-glass arrangement at
clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...
level, each with two lancet windows and one rose window. The clerestory arrangements each measure long by wide. Carved
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...
s, as well as gables with
dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable spac ...
s, run along the copper roof. Inside, there are six north–south rows of piers, three to either side of the nave. These piers divide the nave into five aisles running west to east, with the center aisle located on the same axis as 112th Street. There are four smaller aisles, two to either side of the center aisle. Additionally, the interior contains several
flying buttress The flying buttress (''arc-boutant'', arch buttress) is a specific form of buttress composed of an arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, in order to convey lateral forces to the ground that are necessary to pu ...
es, concealed by "bridges" that carry them over the outermost aisles. There are sixteen sub-bays in the nave, eight on each side; the easternmost sub-bays on either side contain doorways. Each of the bays are named after some aspect of humanity. From west to east, the sub-bays along the northern side of the nave are named the Sports, Arts, Crusaders, Education, Lawyers, Ecclesiastical Origins (Anglican), and Historical and Patriotic Societies' (American), and Fatherhood bays. The sub-bays on the southern side are named the All Souls', Missionary, Labor, Press (Communication), Medical, Religious Life (Earth), Armed Forces (Military), and Motherhood bays. Each of the sub-bays contain carved parapets atop their
mono-pitched roof A shed roof, also known variously as a pent roof, lean-to roof, outshot, catslide, skillion roof (in Australia and New Zealand), and, rarely, a mono-pitched roof,Cowan, Henry J., and Peter R. Smith. ''Dictionary of Architectural and Building Te ...
s. The sub-bays are used for various exhibits. The iconography of the stained-glass windows in the arcade and clerestory is related to the theme of each respective sub-bay. gives a detailed analysis of the stained glass at arcade level. describes the stained glass in the clerestory. In each sub-bay, between the lower windows and the clerestory windows, is the
triforium A triforium is an interior gallery, opening onto the tall central space of a building at an upper level. In a church, it opens onto the nave from above the side aisles; it may occur at the level of the clerestory windows, or it may be locat ...
level, which contains two west–east corridors with numerous windowless rooms and office spaces.


Apse

The
apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...
, located at St. John's eastern end, is made up of numerous components. The center of the apse contains the
choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...
, located below the great organ. Two
ambulatory The ambulatory ( la, ambulatorium, ‘walking place’) is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11th ...
passages run adjacent to the choir, one to the north and the other to the south. Seven chapels, a
baptistery In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptism ...
, and a
columbarium A columbarium (; pl. columbaria) is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns, holding cremated remains of the deceased. The term can also mean the nesting boxes of pigeons. The term comes from the Latin "''colu ...
are also located in the northwestern part of the apse. The apse contains two sets of clerestory windows: the large ambulatory clerestories with multiple panels, as well as a smaller sanctuary clerestory window above each of the ambulatory clerestories. The apse's walls are supported by gabled buttresses, which are taller than the height of the walls, and contain niches with statues.


Choir

The choir was consecrated in 1911. It consists of two sets of wooden stalls facing each other, with three rows in each stall. The stalls were made by the Philadelphia-based John Barber Company. The westernmost unit in the southern row of choir stalls is called the "Dean's Stall". The roof above the choir is supported by eight columns, each tall with a diameter and a weight of . The columns' foundations descend as much as into the bedrock below them. The parapets behind the two sections of the choir were originally installed in 1922 with twenty niches for statues of the spiritual heroes of the twenty centuries since the birth of Christ. For example, the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries are respectively represented by statues of
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
,
George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...
, and
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...
. The niche for the 20th century was left blank through the end of that century. In 2001 the choir parapet was completed with carvings of
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
,
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...
,
Susan B. Anthony Susan B. Anthony (born Susan Anthony; February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to s ...
. and
Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
. In addition, the finials on both rows of stalls were carved by Otto Jahnsen and depict church-music composers and performers. On the floor are tiles designed by the
Grueby Faience Company The Grueby Faience Company, founded in 1894, was an American ceramics company that produced distinctive American art pottery vases and tiles during America's Arts and Crafts Movement. The company was founded in Revere, Massachusetts, by Willi ...
, with geometric patterns and imagery reminiscent of the iconography in other cathedrals. A
compass rose A compass rose, sometimes called a wind rose, rose of the winds or compass star, is a figure on a compass, map, nautical chart, or monument used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions (north, east, south, and west) and thei ...
, the official icon of the
Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...
(in which the Episcopal Church participates), is located on the floor between the two stalls, in the center of the choir.


Great Organ

The Great Organ was built by
Ernest M. Skinner Ernest Martin Skinner (January 15, 1866 – November 26/27, 1960) was an American pipe organ builder. His electro-pneumatic switching systems advanced the technology of organ building in the first part of the 20th century. Biography Skinner ...
in 1906–1910. It is located above the choir on the north and south sides, and consists of four
manual Manual may refer to: Instructions * User guide * Owner's manual An owner's manual (also called an instruction manual or a user guide) is an instructional book or booklet that is supplied with almost all technologically advanced consumer ...
keyboards with several pedals. The opening recital was given in 1911 by
Clarence Dickinson Clarence Dickinson (May 7, 1873 in Lafayette, Indiana – August 2, 1969 in New York City) was an American composer and organist. Early Life and Studies Dickinson grew up in a religious family. His grandfather was minister Baxter Dickinson. H ...
. In 1954, it was enlarged by the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company, Opus 150-A, under the tonal direction of G. Donald Harrison. The organ contains 8,514 pipes, though it previously included 8,035. While most of the pipes are located above the choir stalls, the Great Organ also controls the State Trumpet, located beneath the rose window about to the west. The 2001 fire in the north transept resulted in heavy smoke damage to the organ, and it was subsequently restored by Quimby Pipe Organs, Inc., of
Warrensburg, Missouri Warrensburg is a city in and the county seat of Johnson County, Missouri, United States. The population was 20,313 at the 2020 census. The Warrensburg Micropolitan Statistical Area consists of Johnson County. The city is a college town as it is ...
. After two years of extensive and detailed refurbishment work, including a reorganization of many pipes and a rebuilding of the console, the organ finally returned to service in 2008 as part of an overall $41-million cleaning and repair to the cathedral. The Great Organ was damaged again in the April 2019 crypt fire, and was indefinitely placed out of service pending a thorough cleaning. While the Great Organ was being restored, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine used an electric organ. The organists have included: * Walter Henry Hall (1905–1909) * Miles Farrow (1910–1931) *
Norman Coke-Jephcott Norman Coke-Jephcott FRCO FAGO, FRCCO, FTCL (17 March 1893 – 14 March 1962Biography
Accesse ...
(1932–1953) * John Upham (interim) (1953–1954) * Alec Wyton (1954–1974) * David Pizzaro (1974–1977) *
Paul Halley Paul Halley (born 1952 in Romford, England) is a keyboardist, vocalist and composer. He is perhaps best known as being a member of and composer for the Paul Winter Consort. Biography Paul Halley was born in England in 1952. His father was a ...
(1977–1990) * Dorothy Papadakos (1990–2003) * Timothy Brumfield (2003–2009) * Bruce Neswick (2009–2011) * Kent Tritle (2011–present)


Sanctuary

Behind the choir, to its east, is the sanctuary (or
chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...
), a raised platform. The chancel includes the high
altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in pagan ...
, which is made of white Vermont marble. The
Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called (also ''Magna Charta''; "Great Charter"), is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by t ...
Pedestal—named as such because it is located atop three stones from the
Bury St Edmunds Abbey The Abbey of Bury St Edmunds was once among the richest Benedictine monasteries in England, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. It is in the town that grew up around it, Bury St Edmunds in the county of Suffolk, England. It was a ...
in England—is located to the right, while the
sedilia In church architecture, sedilia (plural of Latin ''sedīle'', "seat") are seats, usually made of stone, found on the liturgical south side of an altar, often in the chancel, for use during Mass for the officiating priest and his assistants, th ...
for the bishop and other clergy is to the left. The sanctuary also contains the cathedra (or bishop's seat), donated by Olivia Egleston Phelps Stokes in memory of her sister
Caroline Phelps Stokes Caroline Phelps Stokes (December 4, 1854 – April 26, 1909) was a benefactor to many organizations that helped the underprivileged in the US, Africa and the Near East, supporting churches, libraries, educational establishments, orphanages, housin ...
. The bishop's pulpit is made of Tennessee marble, with five niches, each of which contain reliefs that depict scenes from the life of Christ. A presbytery, which houses the officiating clergy of St. John's, is located between the chancel and the choir. The
reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for e ...
behind the sanctuary depicts four scenes from the Old Testament on the left (north), and four from the New Testament on the right (south). Behind the altar is a
wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...
enclosure. The space contains the English Gothic style
tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...
of the man who originally conceived and founded the cathedral,
the Right Reverend The Right Reverend (abbreviated The Rt Revd, The Rt Rev'd, The Rt Rev.) is a style applied to certain religious figures. Overview *In the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church in Great Britain, it applies to bishops, except that '' The ...
Horatio Potter, which was dedicated in 1921.


Ambulatory and chapels

An ambulatory, measuring long and wide, surrounds the choir to the north, east, and south, making a rough "U" shape with the two ends of the "U" facing west. The floor is covered with red clay-colored tiles that contain green-serpentine borders. There are wrought-steel gates at either end of the ambulatory. Numerous plaques are present in the ambulatory, paying homage to large donors and other notable individuals in St. John's history. A "poetry wall" and several
Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
paintings are also located in the ambulatory, particularly in the southern part of the ambulatory. Extending outward from the ambulatory are seven chapels. These chapels are known as the "Chapels of the Tongues", and all were donated by prominent individuals and families. The chapels were designed by four different architects and firms: Heins & LaFarge designed two of the chapels, while Cram designed a third. The Chapels of the Tongues were devoted to seven of the city's largest immigrant groups when the apse was completed: the southernmost three chapels represent "Latin races" and the northernmost three chapels represent "Germanic races". All of the chapels, except for St. Ansgar's, were donated by individuals or families. Clockwise from north, they are devoted to: * St. Ansgar, patron of Denmark; designed by
Henry Vaughan Henry Vaughan (17 April 1621 – 23 April 1695) was a Welsh metaphysical poet, author and translator writing in English, and a medical physician. His religious poetry appeared in ''Silex Scintillans'' in 1650, with a second part in 1655.''Oxfo ...
, dedicated 1918.; St. Ansgar Chapel has its own organ. *
St. Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations o ...
, apostle of the Germans; designed by Henry Vaughan, dedicated 1916. *
St. Columba Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is tod ...
, patron of Ireland and Scotland; designed by Heins & LaFarge, dedicated 1911. * St. Savior (Holy Savior), devoted to immigrants from Africa and Asia; designed by Heins & LaFarge, dedicated 1911. St. Savior was the first chapel to be complete, hosting its first services in 1904. It contains a bronze three-paneled altar with gold-leaf decoration, designed by
Keith Haring Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his wor ...
just before his death. *
St. Martin of Tours Martin of Tours ( la, Sanctus Martinus Turonensis; 316/336 – 8 November 397), also known as Martin the Merciful, was the third bishop of Tours. He has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints in France, heralded as the ...
, patron of the French; designed by Cram & Ferguson, dedicated 1918. *
St. Ambrose Ambrose of Milan ( la, Aurelius Ambrosius; ), venerated as Saint Ambrose, ; lmo, Sant Ambroeus . was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promot ...
, patron of Milan; designed by
Carrère and Hastings Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère ( ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), was one of the outstanding American Beaux-Arts architecture firms. Located in New York City ...
, dedicated 1914. * St. James, patron of Spain; designed by Henry Vaughan, dedicated 1916. St. James Chapel is the largest apsidal chapel, with a seating capacity of 25 people, and is frequently utilized for small funerals, weddings, or worship services. The chapel has its own choir and 857-pipe organ. The northwest corner of the apse, adjacent to the St. Ansgar Chapel, includes the octagonal baptistery. The baptistery was donated by three
Stuyvesant family The Stuyvesant family is a family of American politicians and landowners in New York City. The family is of Dutch origin and is descended from Peter Stuyvesant (1610–1672), who was born in Peperga, Friesland, Netherlands and served as the last ...
siblings in 1924. The space measures in diameter with a ceiling tall. The baptistery's iconography depicts the Stuyvesant family history; icons of
New Amsterdam New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...
, New York, and Dutch history; and the 12 apostles. The columbarium, established in the 1970s, is in a room directly west of the baptistery. It contains marble vaults, which store the remains of people from all religions.


Crossing

Between the nave to the west and the apse to the east is the crossing, designed by
Rafael Guastavino Rafael Guastavino Moreno (; March 1, 1842 February 1, 1908) was a Spanish building engineer and builder who immigrated to the United States in 1881; his career for the next three decades was based in New York City. Based on the Catalan vault, ...
. The interior of the crossing includes four massive granite arches, which in the original Heins & LaFarge design were originally intended to support the massive tower above it. When completed in 1900, the arches were described as the "crowning glory" of Morningside Heights. During the time that the nave remained incomplete, temporary walls were placed within the arches so that services could be held in the crossing. Above the crossing is a domed roof, which was meant as a temporary covering until the tower above the crossing was built. It was completed within fifteen weeks between May and August 1909. The dome is shaped like a saucer, and consists of several overlapping layers of
Guastavino tile The Guastavino tile arch system is a version of Catalan vault introduced to the United States in 1885 by Spanish architect and builder Rafael Guastavino (1842–1908). It was patented in the United States by Guastavino in 1892. Description ...
, which support themselves around the dome's center upon their own weight. The
pendentive In architecture, a pendentive is a constructional device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or of an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to point ...
s, or triangular areas between the circular dome and the corners of the arches, are thick; the thickness of the dome itself ranges from on top to at the bottom. Compared to conventional ceilings, the tiles saved money because they did not require temporary supports when they were installed. For added strength, metal rods were included in the dome's shell. The dome was originally intended to be temporary. Cram had proposed three plans for the structure above the crossing: a steeple, a square tower rising above the crossing floor, and then a slim spire. None of these plans were realized. A three-year renovation project from 2019 to 2022 repaired cracks in tiles, patched concrete, added new protective materials, and built a new copper dome over the crossing.


Basements

Directly below the crossing is the basement, which contains the
crypt A crypt (from Latin '' crypta'' " vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a c ...
, now used as a storage area. The items stored in the crypt include artifacts such as pieces of the destroyed
Pennsylvania Station Pennsylvania Station (often abbreviated Penn Station) is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to several of its grand passenger terminals. Several are still in active use by Amtrak and other transportation services; others have been ...
and World Trade Center, as well as wooden angels, plaster
gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry wa ...
s,
leadlight Leadlights, leaded lights or leaded windows are decorative windows made of small sections of glass supported in lead cames. The technique of creating windows using glass and lead came to be known as came glasswork. The term 'leadlight' could ...
s,
antique furniture A piece of antique furniture is a collectible interior furnishing of considerable age. Often the age, rarity, condition, utility, or other unique features make a piece of furniture desirable as a collectors' item, and thus termed an antique. ...
, and a single-file line of saints. The crypt also includes objects such as a large fossil and a massive
crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macro ...
of
quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical f ...
, both of which were relocated to the crypt after the 2001 fire. Along either side the basement are rooms, each named after the chapels that they are located under. In the 1980s, the crypt was also home to the Cathedral Works Company, which sold textiles. The crypt also formerly contained the Tiffany Chapel, created by jewelry designer
Louis Comfort Tiffany Louis Comfort Tiffany (February 18, 1848 – January 17, 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art NouveauL ...
. Originally exhibited at the
World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
in 1893, it was then acquired by Celia Whipple Wallace and moved to the cathedral in 1898. Services at the cathedral were hosted at the Tiffany Chapel from 1899 to 1911, and the chapel was reacquired by Tiffany in 1916. The chapel has been in the
Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, a museum noted for its ''art nouveau'' collection, houses the most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany found anywhere, a major collection of American art pottery, and fin ...
in
Winter Park, Florida Winter Park is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 30,183 according to the 2022 census population estimate. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Winter Park was f ...
, since 1999. A subbasement below the crypt is often flooded by groundwater, potentially from springs in the area. The Leake and Watts Asylum had a well on the site of the present-day baptistery, and there was a spring near the intersection of 110th Street and Morningside Drive. As early as 1893, workers discovered that the ground under the cathedral was soft and prone to flooding. As a result, the cathedral has a concrete foundation. Sump pumps keep the area dry, and construction of the neighboring Enclave has reduced flooding. However, the spring still exists underneath the cathedral, and water from the spring may have contributed to the partial collapse of a retaining wall in 2006.


Cathedral close

The cathedral close, surrounding the main cathedral, consists of several buildings on a site, including the former Leake & Watts asylum building, which predates the land's acquisition by the Episcopal Diocese of New York. The other structures were built later. The former asylum is located immediately south of the crossing. The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine is located on the eastern boundary of the site, just south of the apse. A
Biblical garden Biblical gardens are cultivated collections of plants that are named in the Bible. They are a type of theme garden that botanical gardens, public parks, and private gardeners maintain. They are grown in many parts of the world, with many examples ...
is located between the school and the asylum building. To the southwest is a pulpit green, situated between the nave to the north and the Synod Hall and Diocesan House to the south. The Cathedral House is located south of the Biblical garden and east of the pulpit green. The Synod Hall and Diocesan House are located on the southern boundary. Various paths, gardens, play areas, and furniture are located on the cathedral close, as are numerous artworks and several commemorative or religious objects. The initial plans for the cathedral close, put forth in the 1890s, varied widely. The included a 1892 plan for buildings on Morningside Drive and Cathedral Parkway; various proposals for an Episcopal residence somewhere along the close; and an 1898–1899 plan for a deaconesses' training school. Two other plans were proposed in 1902 and 1903, but after objections to the 1903 plan from St. Luke's Hospital, a new plan was presented in 1906. The Training School for Deaconesses was completed in 1909, independently of the plan. Cram presented to the trustees an extensive plan for all the structures on the grounds in October 1911, and the trustees approved the choir school the same month. The following month, the trustees certified plans for the Synod Hall, bishop's house, and deanery, as well as the never-built diocesan offices and canons' residences. A heating plant at the southwestern corner of the cathedral close (added to the plan in 1913), and two structures planned for the western boundary and approved in 1920, were not built.


Ithiel Town Building

The former Leake and Watts Asylum building, designed by
Ithiel Town Ithiel Town (October 3, 1784 – June 13, 1844) was an American architect and civil engineer. One of the first generation of professional architects in the United States, Town made significant contributions to American architecture in the f ...
and completed in 1843, is located south of the crossing, where the south transept would have been located. The building, designed in the
Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...
style, was originally composed of five parts. There was a central pavilion with Ionic-style
portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cul ...
s to the south and north. The front entrance, located within the south portico, was approached by a wide granite staircase. The only decorative element was at the south portico's
pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...
, which was supported by six stucco-covered brick columns, topped by
capitals Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
made of wood. Brick wings flanked the central pavilion to each side, and originally contained wooden porches along their facades, replaced with iron balconies in 1888. Originally, there were common areas and staff rooms within the central pavilion, and dormitories for 300 children in the wings. When the Episcopal Diocese of New York acquired the site, the former asylum building served several functions for the cathedral. Between 1892 and 1899, it was used as an employee dormitory and construction offices, while the parlor hosted worship services. Afterward, the former asylum's west wing was used by the
day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children and adolescents are given instructions during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compa ...
for the cathedral's
choirboy A choirboy is a boy member of a choir, also known as a treble. As a derisive slang term, it refers to a do-gooder or someone who is morally upright, in the same sense that "Boy Scout" (also derisively) refers to someone who is considered honora ...
s between 1901 and 1913. Cathedral leaders had proposed demolishing parts of the asylum building, since it was in the way of the proposed southern transept, though these demolitions did not happen. Subsequently, the west wing was used by the Diocese offices, and the east wing by Cathedral offices until 1949. The building then became the "Exhibit Hall" and the top stories were removed sometime afterward. The structure was renovated in 2004–2012, becoming the "Ithiel Town Building". The Ithiel Town Building houses a textile laboratory that
conserves Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits whose main preserving agent is sugar and sometimes Acid#In food, acid, often stored in glass jars and used as a condiment or Spread (food), spread. There are many varieties of fruit preserves globally ...
the cathedral's textiles, including the Barberini tapestries to cartoons by
Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual ...
. The laboratory also conserves tapestries, needlepoint, upholstery, costumes, and other textiles for its clients. The building has also housed the Museum of Religious Art, as well as offices, shops, choir rehearsal quarters,
sacristies A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is usually located ...
, and the Cathedral Community Cares program.


Diocesan House

The Diocesan House, also known as St. Faith's House, is the only building on the cathedral close to be designed by Heins & LaFarge before they were fired. The structure, designed in the
Tudor Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...
style, is located on the southern side of the cathedral close, close to Cathedral Parkway (110th Street). It is a -story H-shaped building with a brick facade, a base of Indiana limestone, and gable roofs above the pavilions on the western end. The southern elevation also contains an additional basement story. Its main entrance, on the eastern portion of the northern elevation, is a recessed-arched portal with an
oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found projecting from an upper f ...
on the third story. , the Diocesan House is used by the diocese's offices and archives; the cathedral's library; and apartments. The Diocesan House was originally built for the New York Training School for Deaconesses, which was established in 1890 and had been searching for new locations since 1898 or 1899. Funds to build the structure were finally received in 1907 after Archdeacon
Charles Comfort Tiffany Charles Comfort Tiffany (1829–1907) was an American Episcopal clergyman, born in Baltimore. He served as chaplain for the 6th Connecticut Infantry during the Civil War from October 1864 to May 1865. He studied at Dickinson College, Andover Theol ...
included $125,000 for the deaconesses' school in his will. The building was originally supposed to be on the northern side of the cathedral close, but was moved due to objections from St. Luke's Hospital. Construction started in May 1910 and the school opened by that October. All work was finished in February 1911, and the building was used as a deaconesses' school until May 1948, and it was converted to office use the following year.


Synod Hall

The Synod Hall (also known as the Synod House) houses the cathedral's
synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word '' synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin word mean ...
or council, but is also used for various events and other functions. It was completed in 1913 and was the first of four structures on the cathedral close to be designed by Cram, and was designed to be "the most beautiful thing in New York". It is located at the southwestern corner of the cathedral close. The main entrance, an arched portal facing Amsterdam Avenue, contains carvings of Christian figures, which flank oak double-doors. A carving of
George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...
is located between the doors, and six smaller figures are located on the tympanum above the doors. The exterior is made of pink Kingwood sandstone. Inside is a hall that can seat over a thousand people, with gallery seating above the main level. There are grisaille windows to the north and south, and wooden trusses on the ceiling, supporting the gable roof. The Synod Hall also contains a three-manual Skinner pipe organ. Plans for a diocesan building were considered as early as 1903. The current Synod Hall was announced in 1911, in preparation for the 1913
General Convention of the Episcopal Church The General Convention is the primary governing and legislative body of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. With the exception of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Constitution and Canons, it is the ultimate authority ...
. Cram's firm submitted plans for Synod Hall in March 1912, and it opened in October 1913 with the start of the convention. However, the hall was not completed until early 1914. After Bayard Cutting and
J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...
made large donations toward the Synod Hall, the cathedral had to return some of the previous donations, as the two men had given more than enough funds to pay for the building.


School

The choir school building, now the Cathedral School of St. John the Divine, is located on the cathedral close's eastern border. The building is in the
Collegiate Gothic Collegiate Gothic is an architectural style subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries for college and high school buildings in the United States and Canada, and to a certain extent Europ ...
style and is stories tall. The exterior contains gray schist cladding and limestone trim, with architectural features such as a gabled roof,
dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable spac ...
s protruding from the roof, and Tudor-style arched openings. Inside, the building contained classrooms; gathering space for reception, dining; music rooms; a library; a gymnasium; a dormitory; and masters' and service rooms. The choir school was created in 1901 within the Town Building. A separate structure was first proposed in Walter Cook & Winthrop A. Welch's 1906 plan for the campus. In January 1910, Mary Eliza Blodgett (alternatively Mrs. J. Jarrett Blodgett) donated $25,000 toward the new school building's projected $150,000 cost, as a gift to honor her father John H. Sherwood. Blodgett later covered the rest of the choir school building's cost after no one else donated, while former choirboy Frederick G. Bourne provided a $500,000 endowment in 1914. Cram approved Cook & Welch's plan in January 1912 and filed construction plans that July, with work beginning that October. The school building was finished in September 1913. The choir school consisted of day school for 20 adult men and a boarding school for 40 choirboys who paid no tuition. It was turned into a boys' day school in 1964 and a coeducational day school for grades K-8 in 1972.


Bishop's house and deanery

The Episcopal Residence, consisting of the bishop's house (also Cathedral House) and deanery (also Ogilvie House), were the final buildings that Cram designed within the cathedral close. The structures were intentionally built close together to evoke a feeling of coziness. According to Cram, the Chateauesque-style buildings were inspired by "later domestic" buildings in the French Gothic style. The bishop's house is west of the deanery, on slightly higher ground; the deanery is thus hidden behind the bishop's house. A small garden is located at the northeast corner of the buildings. As built, the two structures contained a myriad of living space inside. The bishop's house contained eight rooms with seven bathrooms, while the deanery contained 20 rooms with five bathrooms. The deanery is three stories tall; like the choir school, it has gray schist cladding and limestone trim. It contains several pavilions with dormers and gabled roofs, as well as a
loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...
and an oriel window on the southern elevation. The bishop's house is four stories tall and is largely in the same design, but part of the northern elevation is made of exposed brick, marking the location where it would have connected to the unbuilt southern transept. The ornamentation of the bishop's house contains symbols of the diocesan offices, such as bishops; by contrast, the deanery has simpler decorations, such as depictions of flowers and cats. A private chapel between the two buildings was not built. An episcopal residence had been announced in 1897 and Heins & LaFarge drew up plans for such a structure in 1902. The Deanery was donated by Helen Slade Ogilvie in 1911 in memory of her late husband Clinton, while the bishop's house was funded partly by the sale of a previous bishop's house at
Gramercy Park Gramercy ParkSometimes misspelled as Grammercy () is the name of both a small, fenced-in private park and the surrounding neighborhood that is referred to also as Gramercy, in the New York City borough of Manhattan in New York, United States. ...
. Initially, the site of the two structures was contested because the buildings would have blocked views of the main cathedral from the south. Before the structures' construction started in 1912, the sites for the bishop's house and deanery were relocated eastward. The two buildings' sites were given preliminary approval in May 1912 and were officially approved that October. The bishop's house started in November 1912 and was finished in April 1914. while the deanery was started in February 1913 and completed by that November. Both structures were erected by Leonard Jacob and Frederick T. Youngs. After the 1947 Diocesan Convention, the bishop moved into the upper two floors of the deanery, and the old bishop's house was turned into administration offices.


Residential buildings

In 2008, the cathedral leased the southeast corner of its property, which contained the cathedral's playground and Rose Garden, to the
AvalonBay Communities AvalonBay Communities, Inc. is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that invests in apartments. As of January 31, 2021, the company owned 79,856 apartment units in New England, the New York City metropolitan area, the Washington, D.C. ...
, which built a luxury apartment building called the Avalon Morningside Park. The project includes 295 apartments, of which 20% are
affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on af ...
units, as well as replacement rose garden. The cathedral leased the northeastern edge of its property, formerly a parking lot, in 2012. The lessee was the Brodsky Organization, which built a residential building called the Enclave between 2014 and 2015. The Enclave consists of 428 rental apartments in two 15-story buildings, separated by the passageway leading to the northern transept; an underground gallery connects the two buildings. Both developments leased the land from the cathedral for 99-year terms. The lease on the land under the Enclave pays the Cathedral about $3 million a year; the lease on the Avalon, about $2.5 million.


Art, activities, and exhibitions


Concerts and special events

The cathedral's interior is frequently used for concerts, performances, and other special events.


Recurring events

The cathedral has an annual New Year's Eve Concert for Peace. The Postlude to Act I of Leonard Bernstein's opera ''Quiet Place'' received its New York premiere at the 1985 concert. The 1990 concert was a tribute to Bernstein himself, who helped found the event and had died two months earlier on October 14.
Paul Winter Paul Winter (born August 31, 1939) is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He is a pioneer of world music and earth music, which interweaves the voices of the wild with instrumental voices from classical, jazz and world music. The ...
has given many concerts at the cathedral, and the
Paul Winter Consort The Paul Winter Consort is an American musical group. Bassist Eliot Wadopian has been a member. Discography Films *''Canyon Consort'' (1985) References External linksLiving Music- Paul Winter's record label {{Authority control American j ...
are the artists in residence. Among the major musical events that takes place every year is a celebration of the feast day of St. Francis, when the Paul Winter Consort participates in a liturgical performance of Winter's ''Missa Gaia'' (Earth Mass). The musical group also performs at the annual Winter Solstice program.


One-time events

The cathedral has also been used for several individual events: * Duke Ellington's '' Second Sacred Concert'', of his original sacred music compositions, premiered at the cathedral on January 19, 1968. * When construction on the south tower restarted in 1982, French high-wire artist
Philippe Petit Philippe Petit (; born 13 August 1949) is a French high-wire artist who gained fame for his unauthorized high-wire walks between the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 1971 and of Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1973, as well as between the T ...
walked on a tightrope stretched across Amsterdam Avenue. Petit was also the artist-in-residence at St. John's starting in 1982. * In 1990, the
avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretica ...
musician Diamanda Galas performed ''Plague Mass'', a culmination of her work dedicated to the victims of the
AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...
epidemic. Galas's performance consisted of covering her body in cattle blood and reinterpreting biblical texts and classic literature. She said it was a protest against what she saw as the ignorance and condemnation toward people with AIDS from religious and political groups. * On December 8, 1994,
Mariah Carey Mariah Carey (; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Referred to as the " Songbird Supreme", she is noted for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style and signature use of the w ...
hosted a benefit concert for
The Fresh Air Fund The Fresh Air Fund is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit agency founded in 1877. At sleepaway camps in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley, visiting volunteer host families along the East Coast and in NYC-based programs, children have new experiences, learn ...
. The concert helped raise $700,000 to support the Fresh Air Fund and Carey's own Camp Mariah, and an additional $1 million from Carey herself. * In November 2017,
Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in '' Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Wit ...
held her last large public concert, a 25th-anniversary event for the
Elton John AIDS Foundation The Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) is a nonprofit organization, established by rock musician Sir Elton John in 1992 in the United States and 1993 in the United Kingdom to support innovative HIV prevention, education programs, direct care a ...
being hosted at the cathedral. The Cathedral of St. John the Divine has also hosted events with spiritual leaders. Among them are Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th
Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...
, who first visited the cathedral in 1979. In addition, Bishop
Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbish ...
led a service in the cathedral in 1986.


Temporary art exhibitions

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is also used as an art exhibition space: * In 1977, a sculpture dedicated to the 12 firemen who died in the 23rd Street Fire of 1966 was unveiled at St. John's. *
Edwina Sandys Edwina Sandys (born 22 December 1938) is an English artist and sculptor. She is the granddaughter of Winston Churchill. Early life Sandys was a debutante and was presented to Queen Elizabeth II. After attending a genteel girls’ school she wen ...
's ''Christa'', a sculpture exhibited during
Holy Week Holy Week ( la, Hebdomada Sancta or , ; grc, Ἁγία καὶ Μεγάλη Ἑβδομάς, translit=Hagia kai Megale Hebdomas, lit=Holy and Great Week) is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. In Eastern Churches, w ...
in 1984, was based upon the feminine divine. Though the sculpture generally received positive acclaim, several pieces of
hate mail Hate mail (as electronic, posted, or otherwise) is a form of harassment, usually consisting of invective and potentially intimidating or threatening comments towards the recipient. Hate mail often contains exceptionally abusive, foul or otherwi ...
were addressed to the cathedral, accusing the cathedral of "blasphemy" with its depiction of Christ on the cross. The statue was displayed again at ''The Christa Project: Manifesting Divine Bodies'' exhibition in 2016. * ''The Value of Water'', curated by artist activist Fredericka Foster, was exhibited at the cathedral in 2011. Featuring over forty artists, it was the largest-ever art exhibition to appear at the cathedral. * In 2014, the cathedral housed ''Phoenix'', a sculptural group by Chinese artist
Xu Bing Xu Bing (; born 1955) is a Chinese artist who served as vice-president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He is known for his printmaking skills and installation art, as well as his creative artistic use of language, words, and text and how t ...
. The two sculptures that comprised ''Phoenix'' was one of the largest pieces of sculpture ever displayed in the United States, weighing with lengths of .


Poets' Corner

The Poets' Corner, inspired by a similar corner at
Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
, is located in the Arts Bay, on the nave's northern side. It was dedicated in 1985, with
Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...
,
Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
, and
Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...
being the first poets to be inducted as part of the tradition. The Poets' Corner consists of a poet-in-residence, hired for a five-year term, who in turn appoints electors on staggered terms. The poets-in-residence and electors have included 17
United States Poet Laureate The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—commonly referred to as the United States Poet Laureate—serves as the official poet of the United States. During their term, the poet laureate seeks to raise the national cons ...
s. The electors then vote on choices for honorees, whose names are carved into blocks in the Poets' Corner; subsequent honorees have included
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...
, T. S. Eliot,
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...
, and
William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...
. The electors' choices can be overturned, as occurred in 1999, when the Very Reverend Harry Pritchett vetoed
Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
's inclusion because of Pound's
anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
statements during World War II.


Permanent works

The pulpit green contains the '' Peace Fountain'', a large bronze work of public art by the cathedral's sculptor-in-residence,
Greg Wyatt Greg Wyatt is an American representational sculptor who works primarily in cast bronze, and is the sculptor-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. Wyatt was born in Nyack, New York and raised in Grand View- ...
. It was commissioned in 1985 and depicts the struggle of good and evil; a battle between the
Archangel Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...
and
Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehoo ...
; and images of the Sun, the Moon, and several animals.


Advocacy

Throughout the years, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine has been involved in various initiatives and projects. These programs included youth initiatives, a
soup kitchen A soup kitchen, food kitchen, or meal center, is a place where food is offered to the hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price (such as via coin donations upon visiting). Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoods, soup ...
, a
homeless shelter Homeless shelters are a type of homeless service agency which provide temporary residence for homeless individuals and families. Shelters exist to provide residents with safety and protection from exposure to the weather while simultaneously r ...
, and AIDS outreach. During the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, the cathedral was also part of the opposition to United States involvement in the war. The Temple of Understanding, an interfaith organization, was housed at the cathedral for several decades in the late 20th century, moving to Midtown Manhattan in the 1990s. Several programs have been directed toward helping members of the surrounding community. In 1971, the cathedral founded ACT (Athletics, Creativity, and Trips), a program that provided after-school activities and summer camp to children in the neighborhood. The program still runs under the name "Advancing the Community of Tomorrow". In 1974, in response to a need for housing in New York City, St. John's created a program that became the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB); by 1987, the program had helped residential tenants in over 500 buildings to renovate and take ownership of their houses. Additionally, a homeless shelter, crisis center, clothes closet, and kitchen are run by in-house volunteers.


Deans

* William Mercer Grosvenor (1911–1916) *
Howard Chandler Robbins Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probab ...
(1917–1929) * Milo Hudson Gates (1930–1939) * James Pernette DeWolfe (1940–1942) * vacant (1942–1952) * James Albert Pike (1952–1958) * John Vernon Butler (1960–1966) * vacant (1966–1972) *
James Parks Morton James Parks Morton (January 7, 1930 – January 4, 2020) was an American Episcopal priest and founder of the Interfaith Center of New York. Cathedral of St. John the Divine Morton was dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for 25 ye ...
(1972–1997) * Harry Houghton Pritchett Jr. (1997–2001) * James August Kowalski (2002–2017) *
Clifton Daniel III Clifton Daniel, 3rd (or III; called Dan; (born July 4, 1947), Goldsboro, North Carolina) is a bishop in the Episcopal Church. He currently serves as the dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Education Daniel attended the University of N ...
(2018–present)


Notable funerals

The following people are listed with the year of their funeral or memorial service in parentheses: *
Alvin Ailey Alvin Ailey Jr. (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989) was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center ...
(memorial, 1989), choreographer *
George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...
(1983), choreographer *
James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; ...
(1987), writer, activist *
Joseph Brodsky Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky (; russian: link=no, Иосиф Александрович Бродский ; 24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist. Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), USSR in 1940, ...
(1996), poet *
John Gregory Dunne John Gregory Dunne (May 25, 1932 – December 30, 2003) was an American writer. He began his career as a journalist for ''Time'' magazine before expanding into writing criticism, essays, novels, and screenplays. He often collaborated with his wif ...
(2004), novelist, screenwriter and literary critic *
Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was bas ...
(1974), composer *
James Gandolfini James Joseph Gandolfini Jr. (; September 18, 1961 – June 19, 2013) was an American actor. For his role as Tony Soprano, the Italian-American Mafia crime boss in HBO's television series ''The Sopranos'', he won three Emmy Awards, five Screen ...
(2013), actor *
Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but a ...
(1993), musician *
Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
(1998), poet *
Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets and '' Fraggle Rock'' (1983–1987) and ...
(1990), Muppets creator *
Trevor Huddleston Ernest Urban Trevor Huddleston (15 June 191320 April 1998) was an English Anglican bishop. He was the Bishop of Stepney in London before becoming the second Archbishop of the Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean. He was best known for ...
(memorial, 1997), anti-apartheid activist * Richard Hunt (1992), Muppet performer *
Audre Lorde Audre Lorde (; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, womanist, radical feminist, professor, and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," wh ...
(1993), poet, activist *
Toni Morrison Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, '' The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' S ...
(2019), author * Paul Moore Jr. (2003), bishop *
Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
(memorial, 1962), activist, diplomat, U.S. First Lady *
Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla ( ; ,"Tesla"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.
; 1856 – 7 January 1943 ...
(1943), inventor * Terence Tolbert (2008), political operative


Visitor access

In addition to worship services, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine offers both self-guided and guided tours of the interior exhibits, the cathedral close, and the gardens. These tours require paid tickets; there are discounts for seniors and students, as well as for those in tour groups. Admission is also included within several New York City tourist passes. The cathedral is open for tourism between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays, and between 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Sundays; it is open for worship between 7:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on all days of the week. Additionally, St. John's offers three types of "daily tours", specific tours of different aspects of the cathedral, which cost more than the regular tickets.


Landmark status

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine complex had been considered for designation as an official landmark by the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
in 1966. At the time, St. John's trustees had opposed the move because the structure was incomplete, and a landmark designation would have required the commission to review every proposed major expansion thereafter. The church's trustees were able to prevent designation by claiming the church was not completed, using a stipulation in the landmark's law that stated that potential landmarks had to have been completed for at least 30 years. A subsequent landmark designation was precluded in 1979 for a similar reason. In 2003, the exterior of the cathedral was again considered for landmark status; the interior was ineligible because the commission was legally unable to recognize religious buildings' interiors as landmarks. However, shortly after the commission conferred landmark status on the structure, the designation was unanimously overturned by the
New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government model, the performance of ...
, some of whose members favored landmark status for the entire cathedral close instead of just the main building. Councilman Bill Perkins proposed that the protective status should also be extended to the cathedral's grounds in order to control development there. The lack of an official city landmark designation meant that the cathedral site could potentially be redeveloped, and as such, two residential buildings were built on the same block as the cathedral. In 2017, the cathedral and six other buildings on the grounds were re-designated a New York City Landmark; the designation excludes the two new structures.


See also

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List of cathedrals in the United States This is a list of cathedrals in the United States, including both actual cathedrals (seats of bishops in Episcopal polity, episcopal Christian groups, such as Catholic Church, Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy and ...
*
List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan above 110th Street The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), formed in 1965, is the New York City governmental commission that administers the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. Since its founding, it has designated over a thousand landmarks, clas ...
* List of the Episcopal cathedrals of the United States


References


Notes


Citations


Sources

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Further reading

* * Supplementary material to . *


External links

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Official website (Congregation of Saint Saviour at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cathedral Of Saint John The Divine 1899 establishments in New York City 1941 establishments in New York City Churches completed in 1899 Churches completed in 1941 Cathedrals in New York City Churches in Manhattan John The Divine Episcopal church buildings in New York City Gothic Revival church buildings in New York City Heins and LaFarge buildings New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan Morningside Heights, Manhattan Ralph Adams Cram church buildings Unfinished buildings and structures in the United States Unfinished cathedrals