The Washington National Cathedral, Washington, DC
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The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul and Close at Mount Saint Alban, a Protestant Episcopal cathedral, known as the "National Cathedral" or the "Washington Cathedral," has a distinct ecumenical character as it functions as the national church called for in the 1792 Plan of the Federal City. The stone, English Neo-Gothic style building begun in 1907 and completed in 1982 has a medieval structural system with masonry load-bearing walls and flying buttresses. However, modern construction methods and interior systems are employed, resulting in a unique combination of old and new. The richly decorated cathedral is located in an informally planned and landscaped 57-acre Close which also contains auxiliary buildings housing the educational institutions of the Cathedral Foundation. This site at the crest of a hill over 600 feet above sea level allows the view from the cathedral to be one of the most magnificent in the city. The cathedral, itself, joins the Capitol and the Washington Monument as dominant visual focal points in the Nation's Capital.
The 1792 Plan of the Federal City set aside a square as the site for the national church but the Old Patent Office (now the National Portrait Gallery and National Collection of Fine Arts) eventually occupied the site. However, the idea of erecting a church which would be the proper location for religious ceremonies of national significance did not die. On December 9th, 1891, a meeting was held at the home of Charles C. Glover to plan such a cathedral. On January 6th, 1893, the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia was granted a charter from Congress to establish a "cathedral and institutions of learning for the promotion of religion and education and charity."
In 1893 Washington was not a separate diocese in the Episcopal Church, but this was remedied in 1895 when part of the Maryland Diocese became the Washington diocese. In 1891, two years before the Episcopal Diocese of Washington was created, Charles Carroll Glover (1846-1936) president of Riggs Bank, held a meeting at his home to discuss a national cathedral for the Episcopal Church. In 1893, Congress granted the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation a charter for a "cathedral and institutions of learning for the promotion of religion and education and charity." Later that year Henry Y. Satterlee (1843-1908) was consecrated as the first Bishop of the newly created Diocese of Washington.
In 1898 Bishop Satterlee chose the expansive site on Mount Saint Alban for Cathedral Close, as he felt it more appropriate for the national church than a constrained downtown site, The Peace Cross was dedicated on this site on October 23rd, 1898, during a ceremony which President McKinley attended. However, construction of the Cathedral was delayed while the mortgage of the Close's land was being paid and during this time there was considerable controversy over the proper architectural style for the cathedral. On January 25th, 1896, Harper's Weekly had illustrated Ernest Flagg's Renaissance Revival design for the building. The Renaissance style had substantial early backing as the first building erected on the Close was Hearst Hall, a Renaissance Revival design by Robert Gibson (1854-1927). This building for the National Cathedral School for Girls was designed "to harmonize with the future cathedral".
In the ten-year period that elapsed between the selection and purchase of the Cathedral site and the actual design of the building, reservations about the style of Flagg's design persisted. Bishop Satterlee became increasingly committed to constructing
Bishop Satterlee's architectural advisory commission included architects committed to Beaux Arts neo-classicism, notably Daniel Burnham, Charles F. McKim, and Charles H. Moore. Nevertheless, by 1906, Bishop Satterlee persuaded his trustees to abandon Flagg's design and proceed with a Gothic cathedral.
After studying churches throughout the United States and England, Satterlee invited George F. Bodley (1827-1907), England's most renowned Gothic revival church architect of the late 19th Century, to visit Washington and to prepare a design for the Cathedral. Henry Vaughan (1846-1917), a Boston architect who formerly served as Bodley's chief draftsman, became Bodley's partner in the work.
Because of his architectural prominence, George F. Bodley was the universally recommended choice for the architect of the Washington National Cathedral.
Bodley (1827-1907) was England's leading Anglican church architect in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His interpretation of the late 14th-century English Decorated Gothic style was so influential that Henry-Russell Hitchcock, a leading architectural historian, says that the buildings in this style might be called "Bodleian Gothic". Vaughan (1846-1917) was an English architect who immigrated to the United States in 1881 and became a prominent American proponent of the Neo-Gothic style.
Henry Vaughan, a disciple of George Bodley, immigrated to Boston in 1881. His architectural impact has been overshadowed by his more self-aggrandizing colleague, Ralph Adams Cram. A modest and retiring man, Vaughan's role in establishing the neo-Gothic revival has been compared to Charles McKim's influence in the triumph of American Beaux Arts neo-classicism. Unlike other American architects associated with the neo-Gothic revival movement in America, Vaughan was steeped in medieval English architecture, particularly church architecture. Vaughan remained in the United States, "an English architect who happened to work in America." The 1906 commission for the Washington National Cathedral marked the capstone of his career. Vaughan worked on the National Cathedral until his sudden death in June 1917. Henry Vaughan is interred at the Cathedral, an indication of the Cathedral's significance within his body of work.
On September 29th, 1907, the foundation stone of the cathedral was laid during a ceremony that included an address by President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1910 George A. Fuller Company became contractor. (This firm is still the contractor of the Cathedral.) By 1912 the Bethlehem Chapel in the crypt under the apse and sanctuary was completed and services were moved inside after being conducted outside since 1898. This chapel was designed by Vaughan and he also decided to omit the ambulatory around the 5-sided apse in Bodley's design.
When construction was halted by World War I the apse was structurally complete. By 1922 when construction resumed both Bodley and Vaughan were dead. In 1922 Frohman, Robb & Little of Boston were chosen to complete the Cathedral, Cram and Ferguson served a few years as advising architects. Philip Hubert Frohman (1887-1972) continued as Cathedral architect until 1971. Frohman, Robb & Little modified Bodley and Vaughan's design. They made the nave and tower larger and included more chapels and crypts. The barrel vaults of the nave outer aisles were redesigned as rib vaults. West aisles were added to the transepts. Frohman redesigned the west (main) facade four times.
In 1922-23 the foundations, other than those of the choir and apse, were laid. In 1929 the Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea, located under the crossing, was dedicated and the first stone of the north transept was laid. The following year ground was broken for the south transept. In 1932, the choir, apse, and north transept opened for public worship.
Work proceeded as funds became available, and donations have come from members of all denominations and faiths. In 1962 the south transept was dedicated and in 1964 the crossing tower, the Gloria in Excelsis Tower, was dedicated. In 1972 the narthex was under construction and the full nave was projected to be enclosed by 1976. Since 1971 James Godwin of Godwin & Beckett has been superintending architect.
The landscaping of the Close and the construction of subordinate buildings to house the various institutions fulfilling the educational functions of the 1893 charter have occurred concurrently with the construction of the cathedral.
The Cathedral has been the location of significant events. The funeral services of Woodrow Wilson and of Dwight Eisenhower were held there. Its pulpit was the last occupied by Martin Luther King, Jr., prior to his assassination. The building and the Close have been the location of protest meetings.
The Cathedral is the burial place of a number of notable persons. Among those interred are Woodrow Wilson, Admiral George Dewey, Cordell Hall, Helen Keller, Bishop Satterlee, and two of the building's architects, Henry Vaughan and Philip Frohman.
The building is the site of musical and theatrical performances as well as of religious services. It is unique among Episcopal cathedrals as it is the seat of two bishops (the Bishop of Washington and the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church).
Fundraising for construction of the National Cathedral further promoted its national scope. The Cathedral relied on small contributions from individuals and large donations from benefactors throughout the country. After World War I, General John J. Pershing, who had commanded the American armies during World War I and subsequently became the General of the Armies of the United States, was named chairman of the National Cathedral Association. Pershing's leadership raised the national profile of the Cathedral. Appeals for donations were made at the General Convention, the annual conference for the Episcopal Church as a whole. In a manner pioneered by the
Mount Vernon Ladies Association, states were given a special role. Sunday services were dedicated to each state and Episcopalians were encouraged to make a pilgrimage to the Cathedral on their state's Sunday.
Episcopalians and members of other denominations throughout the United States were involved in ways large and small. In the mid-1950s, the Needlepoint Committee mounted a national traveling exhibition of needlework. Professional textile designers produced patterns for the small army of men and women from every state who created needlepoint kneelers and cushions. In 1959, Dean Francis B. Sayre, Jr. issued a general invitation for anyone who wanted to submit models for gargoyles to be incorporated into the Cathedral, an appeal that resulted in a deluge of responses.
The National Cathedral's role as the site of numerous functions that cement national identity and life has further raised its national profile, particularly since many of these services have been televised. It has indeed become L'Enfant's national ceremonial church for "national purposes, such as public prayer, thanksgivings, funeral Orations, etc … equally open to all." The site of Presidential inaugural prayer services, the National Cathedral has witnessed state funerals of Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan, and Ford. The Cathedral also served as the site of President Truman's memorial service. Of these four presidents, only Ford was Episcopalian. The burial service for President Woodrow Wilson, a Presbyterian, was held at the Cathedral, where he is interred.
In 2007 on the occasion of its 150th anniversary, the American Institute of Architects (ALA) commissioned a Harris Interactive Poll to determine America's favorite buildings. The National Cathedral ranked third after the Empire State Building and the White House, finishing ahead of the U.S. Capitol, and the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials. The only other religious buildings to rank in the top 25 were St. Patrick's Cathedral (11th) and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (23rd).
Building Description
The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul is a cruciform plan Neo-Gothic building which has been under construction since 1907. It is located on a spacious 57-acre site on the top of Mount Saint Alban in Northwest Washington. The site, known as the Close, is bound by Woodley Road on the north, Wisconsin Avenue on the west, Massachusetts Avenue at the southwest corner, Garfield Street on the south, and 34th Street on the east. The Close does not include St. Alban's Protestant Episcopal Church and its related buildings.
The Cathedral's design reflects the historicism of the early 20th century when an architect sought to create a new, but archeologically correct, design by making a style of the past his own. The three architects of the Cathedral found their main source of inspiration in the late 14th-century English Decorative Gothic style. Not only are decorative features of the style employed but also structural features.
The Washington Cathedral has greater horizontality than the sky-reaching French cathedrals. This is due to the lengthiness of its nave and chancel more than to a lack of height. In addition, the building has a rather contained, linear outline insignificantly broken by pinnacles and flying buttresses. The square crossing tower because of its massiveness and its straight top acts as a stabilizing force more than as a vertical accent.
The building consists of a long narrow rectangular mass (the 8-bay nave and the 5-bay chancel) intersected by a shorter rectangular mass (the 3-bay north transept and the 3=bay south transept). Above the crossing, rising 301' above grade, is the Gloria in Excelsis Tower. The side elevations are staggered. Between the flying buttresses of the nave are 18-foot high chapels and 45-foot high aisles covered by shed roofs. The aisles extend around the sides of the transepts and the sides of the chancel. Chapels occupy the corners between the transept aisles and chancel aisles. The nave, transepts, and chancel have steep gable roofs with ridges 150' 3" above grade. The buttresses are freestanding to the ground around the polygonal apse which has no radiating chapels. A one-story triple-arched porch projects from the north transept and is connected to the Administration Building by an angled cloister. A cloister also connects the east bay of the chancel with the Administration Building. The one-story porch which projects from the south transept has a large portal with carved tympanum, This portal is approached by the Pilgrim Steps, a long flight of steps 40 feet wide. The unbuilt 158' 10"-wide west front will have straight-topped corner towers, each rising 234 feet above grade. The total length of the Cathedral will be 518 feet. The nave is 41 feet wide.
The structural system of the Cathedral is one of its most interesting features. The building is being erected for a thousand-year design life and has masonry load bearing walls, masonry vaults, and flying buttresses. The main building material is gray Indiana oolite limestone. Concrete is found in foundations and piers, in the floors supporting the bells in the crossing tower, and in the roof of the north transept. The only structural steel in the walls and buttresses are vertical rods added to those built since the invention of the atomic bomb to give lateral reinforcement. The roof of the choir is supported by steel trusses, Roofs are covered with lead.
Modern technological innovations are incorporated into the Cathedral's electrical and mechanical systems. These systems have been integrated into the structure in the west section and added as inconspicuously as possible in the earlier east section. The cathedral has a "pioneering" underfloor radiant heating system supplemented by warm ventilation air. It has a complicated electrical system capable of television hook up. The building had the first overhead sound system in the United States. This system, installed in the late 1930s, has been replaced by a dual system, one for voice and one for music. There is an elevator in the south transept and another is planned for one of the west towers.
The Cathedral has a crypt floor, a main floor, and rooms above the vaulting of the nave, chancel, and transepts and in the crossing tower. The outstanding features of the crypt floor are three large chapels and the museum in the south corridor. The design of the Chapel of the Resurrection under the south transept was inspired by Norman architecture and is an exception to the general stylistic consistency of the building. The main body of the cathedral is striking both for its height and for its length. The rectangular bays of the nave and chancel have rib vaults with tiercerons. The vaults are connected by a ridge rib which creates a horizontal emphasis. This horizontality is balanced by the verticality of the high walls. The wall of each bay is divided into three zones: arcade, triforium, and clerestory. The aisles, transepts, and chapels also have rib vaults. The rooms above the main floor are partially finished or unfinished.
Decorative features have been integrated with the architecture. Most decorative elements have Christian symbolism or are memorials to famous persons or events. The building abounds in architectural sculpture, wood carving, leaded glass, mosaics, artistic metalwork, and other artworks. Even the kneeling pads in the chapels have original embroidered designs. The artworks exhibit varying traditional and contemporary styles, except the architectural sculpture which is modeled on Gothic precedent.
Music is as integral a part of the Cathedral as are its artworks. In the crossing tower is a 53-bell carillon and a 10-bell ring. The Washington Cathedral is believed to be the first church with both a carillon and ring.
The basically rectangular Close contains a considerable amount of informally landscaped open space and gardens as well as buildings and playing fields of the various educational institutions of the Cathedral Foundation. Mise Beatrix Jones supervised early landscaping and the grounds of the Cathedral Close were open to the public in 1901. The Renaissance Revival Hearst Hall (erected in 1900-01 and designed by Robert W. Gibson) is located in the northwest corner of the Close. The Cathedral is located southwest of Hearst Hall and its main facade will face southwest. The Administration Building (erected in 1928-29, designed by Frohman, Robb, & Little) is north of the Cathedral and attached to it by cloisters. Northeast of it is the College of Preachers (erected in 1928-29 and also designed by Frohman, Robb, & Little). East of the Cathedral is the Cathedral Library (erected in 1924-27, and designed by Frohman, Robb & Little) and the Deanery (erected in 1953, and designed by Walter G. Peters). The east section of the Close contains playing fields and Beauvoir Elementary School (erected in 1964 and designed by Faulkner, Kingsbury & Stenhouse). In the central part of the Close are the Pilgrim Steps, Bishop's Garden, and other landscaping designed by Mrs. G.C.F. Bratenahl and added in 1928-32. Southwest of the Cathedral is the Episcopal Church House (formerly the Bishop's House, designed by Henry Vaughan, and erected in 1913-14). Southwest of this building are St. Atban's Church and its Guild Hall, its Rectory, and Satterlee Hall. They are not part of the Close but their architecture complements the buildings in the Close. The southwest section of the Close is occupied by St. Alban's School for Boys. Its first building the Lane-Johnston Building designed by York & Sawyer) was erected in 1905-07. The Close also contains a few residential buildings, service buildings, greenhouses, and temporary workshops. Most of the substantial buildings except the most recent school buildings are in the Neo-Tudor or the Neo-Gothic styles.
