Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis Indiana
The parish of Christ Church, in the town of Indianapolis, Township of Center, County of Marion, was organized on July 13, 1837, and on May 7, 1938, built one of five churches to be located on the Circle.
The first service was held on Sunday morning, the 18th of November 1838.
The present church was designed by William Tinsley, architect, who had previously won recognition for his plan for Northwestern Christian University, Indianapolis, Indiana, the Center Hall at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, and Ascension Hall of Kenyon College at Gambier, Ohio. Christ Church, at Indianapolis, is considered his finest ecclesiastical building in America.
The cornerstone for the present church was laid on the 24th day of June 1857, and the final cost of the church being approximately Thirty-two Thousand Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars.
Other churches previously located on the Circle were the First Presbyterian Church, the Wesley Chapel of the Methodist, Second Presbyterian, and the Plymouth Congregational Church. The Methodist left in 1869, First Presbyterian in 1866, Second Presbyterian in the fall of 1867, and the Congregational in 1884, leaving Christ Church as the only continuously active church located on the Circle in Downtown Indianapolis.
Christ Church has been a continuous and active member of the Indianapolis community during its entire existence and has been the place of worship for many of the prominent citizens of Indianapolis. It is now designated as the Cathedral for Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis. The Parish has spanned the era from a pioneer town to a booming industrial metropolis. With minor modifications, it remains as it was originally built in 1857.
The Cathedral is open seven days a week to the public, and funds are available for its maintenance and display as a historical site.
Site Description
The first services held in Christ Church began at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, November 18th, 1838. The original building was 29 by 43 feet of wood in Gothic style, with a gallery and portico; the stairs to the gallery rising from the portico; which seated, in sixty pews, three hundred persons and fifty in the gallery.
The present church cornerstone was laid on the site of the prior church on June 24, 1857, and occupied for services on October 24, 1858. William Tinsley was the architect, and the style is Gothic Cathedral, cruciform in plan, with the sanctuary in the east end. The main facade faces west and that, as well as both transept ends have three tall, narrow, lance-like windows. In each of the three gables above, three windows are a bullseye with the trefoil cusping. The tower on the southwest corner is capped by a graceful octagonal spire. (not added for ten years). The exterior is of rough limestone with more finished buttresses and coins.
The nave is of exquisite proportions and well-lighted by tall, Gothic windows. The peaked roof is supported by gracefully interlaced curved trusses supported on the lower ends on stone corbels and tied together by sturdy beams. The ceiling was originally painted light blue. There was no middle aisle and central pews entered from the sides. Above the altar were two panels with words taken from "Sanctus."
There were places for twenty in the choir which formed for the entry in an old-world-looking sacristy, illuminated with leaded glass windows to the north of the chancel.
Wand J. Lamb, Architects, New York, and Vonnegut and Bohn of Indianapolis, as supervising architects completed the lichgate, deepened chancel, and the Parish House on the west end of the Church. The middle aisle was added along with complete redecoration of the interior. Only minor changes have been made subsequent to 1900.
Second window on south side (1973)
South side and portico, and portions of west side (1973)
Sacristy and Pulpit (1973)
West window in the front facade (1973)
Portico and west facade (1973)
