Building Description All Saints' Episcopal Cathedral, Milwaukee Wisconsin
It is a rectangular structure oriented with the altar to the north and with a single square tower at the southeast corner. The building is 124 feet long and 80 feet wide, including the tower. The height of the tower is reported to be 190 feet.
The walls are of Milwaukee cream colored brick with dressed limestone trim. Decorative brick corbelling defines the intersection of wall planes with the roof edges throughout the building, except in the 1908 chancel addition. Attached brick buttresses define the six bays of the church nave. The tower has buttresses at the corners.
The main entrance is centrally located on the south facade. Panelled double wooden doors, each with six lights above and three blind panels below the lock rail, are set in a recessed Gothic-arched porch. The door frame and head repeat this arch shape. The tower has a Gothic-arched entry on the east that has panelled double wooden doors; these also lead into the vestibule.
Most windows throughout the cathedral are stained glass, gothic-arched, wooden units with dressed limestone sills and brick hoodmolds. On each side of the main entry there is a window with double lights. Above these, on the choir loft level, are two, tall, narrow, double-hung, two-over-two-light windows. Centered above the gabled entry porch is a large, circular, stained-glass window with two horizontal bars. This unit is also framed by a brick-trimmed Gothic arch and has a curved sill. High in the main gable there is a small circular, stained-glass window trimmed with brick.
The curved west end of the vestibule has a single, oval shaped, stained-glass window trimmed with brick. Each bay of the side aisle walls has two windows which share a common stone sill. The clerestory windows above are similar to those of the side aisles below, but approximately half the size. On the east and west sides of the rectangular chancel projection, there are large triple-lancet windows with wooden tracery.
The lower level windows of the cathedral were designed by Lavers and Westlake of London during the 1890s. These windows are notable for the unusual jewel-tone colors. The smaller clerestory windows, ca. 1920-1940s, are copies of the Laver and Westlake windows. The cathedral windows depict the lives and symbols of the saints.
Interior
The vestibule occupies the entire width of the church and includes the base of the square tower on the southeast corner. The west end of the vestibule is curved. There are three openings from the vestibule into the church proper-one for each of the two side aisles and one for the central aisle of the nave.
The east aisle has, at its north end, the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, while the west aisle has Che Holy Nativity Chapel at its north end. Beyond and to the west of this chapel is a door leading to the Guild Hall attached to the church on the west. Large rectangular piers with Gothic arches separate the side aisles from the nave.
The chancel is raised three steps above the main nave floor and is separated from the side chapels by ornate Gothic wooden screens. There is an elaborate pulpit at the southeast corner of the chancel area. The squared-end main altar north of the chancel platform is raised one step above the platform and is defined by an ornately carved, wooden communion rail. The Bishop's Chair is at the left (west) and another chair occupies a similar position on the right (east). Both are elaborately carved.
