The Cathedral of St. John the Divine (sometimes referred to as St. John's and also nicknamed St. John the Unfinished) is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, between West 110th Street (also known as Cathedral Parkway) and West 113th Street.
The cathedral is an unfinished building, with only two-thirds of the proposed building completed, due to several major stylistic changes, work interruptions, and unstable ground on the site. In 1892 construction began on the original design, a synthesis of the Byzantine Revival and Romanesque Revival styles. After the opening of the crossing in 1909, the overall plan was changed to a Gothic Revival design. The completion of the nave 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 of the facade, the southern transept, and a proposed steeple above the crossing, have not been completed.
Despite being incomplete, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the largest church in North America, by some definitions the world's largest Protestant cathedral, and is the fourth-largest church by area among all Christian denominations. The floor area of St. John's is , with a length of , and 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, St. Faith's House, the choir school, the deanery, and the bishop's house. The buildings are in different styles and were built at different times; the Leake & Watts Orphan Asylum predates the cathedral itself. The cathedral close was collectively designated an official city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2017.
History
Context Site The neighborhood of Morningside Heights was thinly settled in the 17th century by the Dutch, then by the English. It remained rural through the mid-19th century, with two exceptions. The first was the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, which opened in 1821 and moved to Westchester in 1889. 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, and three years later, of 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, 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 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, who proposed a site near Washington Square Park. 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 (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, even as many New Yorkers still harbored resentment over the American Revolutionary War.
In 1873, a cathedral board of trustees was established under Bishop Horatio Potter. The board decided on property just south of Central Park, 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. 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, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Opera House, and the American Museum of Natural History.
Planning Site selection When Henry C. Potter, Horatio Potter's nephew, became the Diocese of New York's assistant bishop in 1883, he convened the trustees to look for an alternative 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. 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, Vanderbilt, and Belmont families. Additionally, the Barberini family'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 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 was too difficult to acquire, as its ownership 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. 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, across the Hudson River to the west, as well as from the New York Bay to the south.
Architecture competition
There was also debate over the new cathedral's style. Because of the larger plot and more remote location from Midtown Manhattan it was anticipated it could be more elaborate than St. Patrick's. The trustees had formed a Committee on Architecture in conjunction with William Robert Ware, a Columbia architecture professor, which held a design competition involving several prominent architectural firms. Though the competition had an open entry, fourteen selected architects were paid $500 each to create designs. The competition closed in January 1889.;
In May 1889 the trustees formed a committee to review the more than 60 designs submitted. Many entrants 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 professional knowledge of architecture. The entries were narrowed down to four finalists, namely, the "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 (1860–1955), brother of Edward Austin Kent; "AMDG" by George M. Huss and J. H. Buck; and "Jerusalem the Golden" by William Halsey Wood.; "Gerona" used the Gothic style based on Spanish cathedrals; "AMDG" and "Jerusalem the Golden" were in a regular Gothic style, and "Three Arabesque Scrolls" was mainly Byzantine.
Potter and Robertson were the only finalists with 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 this agreement and revealed their designs to the media. The finalists were given more than a year to carry out further work 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 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. This design had been the trustees' second choice but 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, his work on the design initially received no recognition; it was acknowledged the following year. The design proposed an apse of radiating chapels apses; a square crossing defined by four round-headed arches, supporting a dome over which would rise a massive tower; and transepts with round edges. The interior was based upon Boston's Trinity Church, and the crossing was based upon Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, Venice's St. Mark's Basilica, 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 buildings at the Bronx Zoo, as well as the early stations of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, the first operator of the present-day New York City Subway.
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 would face east, in the direction of the sunrise, to represent the resurrection of Jesus 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-laying ceremony on December 27, 1892, St. John's Day.See: