The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Episcopal Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral or National Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church. It is located in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was begun in 1907 and formally completed in 1990. It is of Neo-Gothic design closely modeled on English Gothic style of the late fourteenth century and is the second-largest church building in the United States, and the third-tallest building in Washington, D.C. The cathedral is the seat of both the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church and the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. Over 270,000 people visit the structure annually.
The Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, under the first seven bishops of Washington, erected the cathedral under a charter passed by the United States Congress on January 6, 1893. The foundation stone was laid on September 29, 1907 in the presence of President Theodore Roosevelt and a crowd of more than 20,000. The cathedral was completed 83 years later, after several phases of construction and yearslong interruptions, in the presence of President George H. W. Bush on September 29, 1990. Decorative and restorative work, particularly of damage from a nearby earthquake in 2011, is ongoing The Foundation is the legal entity of which all institutions on the Cathedral Close are a part; its corporate staff provides services for the institutions to help enable their missions, conducts work of the Foundation itself that is not done by the other entities, and serves as staff for the board of trustees.
The cathedral stands at Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues in the northwest quadrant of Washington. It is an associate member of the inter-denominational Washington Theological Consortium. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2007, it was ranked third on the List of America's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.
History
In 1792, Pierre L'Enfant's "Plan of the Federal City" specified a site for a "great church for national purposes." However, he defined it as non-sectarian and nondenominational. Alexander Hamilton modified L'Enfant's plan and eliminated the "church" and several other proposed monuments; that plan was never reproduced. The working plan for the new city was subsequently produced by Andrew Ellicott and varied in many respects from L'Enfant's, although the essence remained. The National Portrait Gallery now occupies the site L'Enfant had envisioned for the church.
In 1891, a meeting was held to begin plans for an Episcopal cathedral in Washington. On January 6, 1893, the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia was granted a charter from Congress to establish the cathedral. The 52nd United States Congress declared in the act to incorporate the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia that the "said corporation is hereby empowered to establish and maintain within the District of Columbia a cathedral and institutions of learning for the promotion of religion and education and charity."
Architects
Henry Yates Satterlee, first Episcopal bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, chose George Frederick Bodley (founder of Watts & Co.), a highly regarded British Gothic Revival architect of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, and was influenced by Canterbury, as the head architect and subsequent designer of the cathedral master plan. Henry Vaughan was selected as supervising architect. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. contributed a landscaping plan for the cathedral close, and Nellie B. Allen designed a knot garden for the Bishop's Garden. After Bodley died in 1907, his partner Henry Vaughan revised the original design, but work stopped during World War I, and Vaughan who was at an advanced age and in ill health died in 1917.
When work resumed after the war, the chapter hired Boston architecture firm Frohman, Robb and Little to execute the building. Philip Hubert Frohman, who had designed his first fully functional home at age 14 and received his architectural degree at age 16, and his partners worked to perfect Bodley's vision, adding the carillon section of the central tower, enlarging the west façade, and making numerous smaller changes. Ralph Adams Cram was hired to supervise Frohman because of his experience with the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, but Cram insisted on so many major changes to the original design that Frohman convinced the cathedral chapter to fire him. By Frohman's death in 1972, the final plans had been completed, and the building was finished accordingly.
Construction timeline Site selection
The Mount Saint Alban site was selected in 1896 by Bishop Satterlee. The site, a wooded hill, somewhat distant from the center of the city and rising approximately 400 feet (about 120 metres) above the Potomac River, was the highest point in Washington, occupying an imposing position overlooking the new Capital. Satterlee believed it to be a stunning place to build, but also importantly located Northwest of the city center, an area into which it was (correctly) expected the city to expand later. In his writings on the cathedral's purpose, Satterlee emphasized that it should stand above politics and commercialism, serving as a reminder of the moral and spiritual values that should inform those pursuits. The land had been in the family of Joseph Nourse, an important figure from the government of President Washington, for many years. It passed through several descendants, and eventually passed to his granddaughter who, passing away, allowed the site to come up for sale in 1893. Purchasing the site was far from simple, as the funds were not available, however through the Bishop's fundraising abilities and several important donations, funds were found for the purchase. One of the most important of these was that of Phoebe Hearst, who donated a considerable sum for the founding of a girl's school.
With the site chosen, Bishop Satterlee was tasked with raising funds and establishing the organizations that would guide the cathedral's construction. He founded committees along the East Coast of the United States, which later became the National Cathedral Association (now the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation). Satterlee personally envisioned a Gothic cathedral, though other members of the Cathedral Chapter held differing views. A vigorous debate ensued over whether the building should be Gothic, Renaissance, or some other style. Ultimately Satterlee's vision, which he backed with passionate argument, prevailed, and a Decorated Gothic design was chosen on May 21, 1906.
Early structures on the site The Mount Saint Albans site was something of a tabula rasa at its purchase. It housed St. Alban's Church, which had been constructed in the 1850s at the bequest of one of Joseph Nourse's descendants (Phoebe Nourse). It had been the location at which a convocation of bishops had even suggested that a cathedral should be built on the site. A number of other structures (religious, educative and administrative) were erected on the site before the project of the Cathedral itself was formally begun. The first was the Celtic Peace Cross, erected in 1898 in a ceremony presided over by Bishop Satterlee and addressed by President William McKinley, acting as a memorial for the fallen of the Spanish-American War which had recently ended, but dedicated to commemorating peace with Spain. Services were held at the site commemorating that war over the following years. It bears the following inscription: "Et Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis. This cross is raised in the historic year A.D. 1898 to mark the founding of the Cathedral of SS. Peter & Paul. 'That it may please thee to give to all nations unity, peace & concord we beseech thee to hear us Good Lord.' Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone." and on the rear "The Peace Cross."
It was followed by Hearst Hall (now the National Cathedral School), a girls school (completed 1899-1900), and The Little Sanctuary (now St. Albans School) and completed in 1902, which served as the Pro-Cathedral. It would come to house a number of the critical which would eventually be installed in the sanctuary of the Cathedral itself such as the Jerusalem Altar, Cathedra.
An Altar and Sundial (the Cathedral Landmark and Sundial), constructed of the same Indiana Limestone (from which the cathedral would later be made), was planned in 1903 and erected in 1905. It was finally constructed to indicate that the debts for the land has been paid off allowing, in the Bishop's mind, the cathedral to be consecrated. The final gift of money ($50,000 at the time), was donated by Catalina Mason Myers Julian-James, and the Cathedral Landmark and Sundial, bears a number of inscriptions to this effect and to the dedication of the monument on the Feast of the Ascension, 1906. Inscribed around the mensa of the altar is "Transit umbra, lux permanet.Shadow passes, Light remains" along with Malachi 1:11.
Foundation stone The turning of the first sod occurred, in the pouring rain, at the Mount Saint Albans site. It was conducted on the Eve of the Feast of Saint Bartholomew (August 23) of 1907, in a ceremony presided over by clergy (the first Dean of the Cathedral, Canon Bratenahl, Canon De Vries, and the Rev. W. T. Snyder) and Henry Vaughan, the cathedral's initial architect (who was later interred in the Bethlehem Chapel, a structure of his own design). It had been Satterlee's intention to lay the foundation stone on Michaelmas (September 29) of 1907, both for its liturgical symbolism and to capitalize on the convenience of numerous prominent international clergy who were visiting the United States to attend the Episcopal Church's General Convention in nearby Richmond, Virginia.
Preparations for a foundation stone had begun months earlier, at least by May 17, 1907, and continued through early July. Various options were considered, but because the Bishop was extremely fond of symbolism, the foundation stone was no exception. It was decided that the stone should be composite, comprising a small stone hewn from the rocks of the fields around the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (in Ottoman Palestine, as it was then known), the town in which Jesus is said to have been born. This stone, weighing approximately 4–5 pounds (about 2 kilograms), was to be embedded (for its protection) in a far larger, American granite block which had been purchased by Henry Vaughan and Canon Bratenahl.
The Bethlehem stone is engraved with a quotation from John 1:14: "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." The larger American granite block bears the inscription: "The Foundation Stone of the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, A.D. 1907" (minuscule substituted and punctuation added). Contrary to the more common practices of the time, no other foundation deposits were laid with or encased in the stone. This was because Bishop Satterlee held that foundation deposits "indicate a lack of faith in the permanency of the building. As long as Mount Saint Alban stands, Washington Cathedral is expected to stand, and when building once begins, the stone will never again be dislodged or exposed to view."
The cornerstone of Washington National Cathedral was laid on September 29, 1907, in a ceremony presided over by Bishop Satterlee, the first Bishop of Washington, and rooted in centuries-old Anglican and American Episcopal ceremonial. The ceremony featured greetings from President Theodore Roosevelt, salutations from the Bishop of London, Arthur Winnington-Ingram, and addresses from Associate Justice David J. Brewer and Reverend Philip Napier Waggett. The cornerstone was laid by Bishop Satterlee toward the end of the ceremonies on September 29, 1907.