Cathedral of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue | also 1021 Amsterdam Avenue | Morningside Heights | built 1900
Open on the map19 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1892
Bishop Henry Codman Potter lays the cathedral's cornerstone
Bishop Potter struck the cornerstone three times on December 27, 1892, beginning the Episcopal cathedral designed by Heins & LaFarge. Its 93-foot crossing dome, built of lightweight Guastavino tiles, went up in just 15 weeks in 1903. The choir was consecrated in April 1911, and that May Ralph Adams Cram was hired to redesign the building after LaFarge's dismissal.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1903
Eight granite columns from Maine are barged to the cathedral
Eight columns for the choir were quarried at Vinalhaven, Maine, each 54 feet tall and six feet across, then the world's second-largest stone columns. Three cracked while being turned, and a specially built barge towed by the tug Clara Clarita carried them to Manhattan in July and August 1903. With no derrick strong enough to lift them, builders constructed a wooden one, and the columns were raised in July 1904.
“Because of their size, three of the columns cracked while being turned. The columns were then transported using a specially constructed barge…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1909
Guastavino builds a tile dome over the crossing as a temporary roof
In 1909 Rafael Guastavino constructed a tile dome over the cathedral's crossing, intended only as a temporary roof. It was never replaced and still covers the crossing today. The cathedral describes it as one of the largest freestanding domes in the world.
Source: stjohndivine.org
- 1911
Trustees replace the cathedral's architects, shifting styles mid-build
After consecrating the completed choir on April 19, 1911, the cathedral's trustees dismiss architect Christopher Grant LaFarge, whose firm had designed the Byzantine-Romanesque crossing since 1891, and hire Ralph Adams Cram to design the still-unbuilt nave. Cram switches the plan to Gothic style, a decision that draws criticism and leaves the crossing and nave in two different architectural languages that still meet awkwardly today.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1930
New York Times publisher Adolph Ochs gives two menorahs for the High Altar
In 1930 Adolph Ochs, publisher of the New York Times, donated two menorahs, each 12 feet tall, to stand on either side of the cathedral's High Altar. The gift acknowledged the cathedral's efforts to improve relations between Jews and Christians.
Source: stjohndivine.org
- 1941
The cathedral opens along its full length for the first time
Nearly half a century after the cornerstone was laid, the cathedral opened from end to end on November 30, 1941. Large parts of the plan were never built, and only about two-thirds of the proposed structure stands today, which is why New Yorkers call it 'St. John the Unfinished.'
Source: Wikipedia
- 1942
The cathedral gives scrap metal to the war effort and minds silver from London
In 1942 the cathedral donated five tons of scrap metal, including wrought iron railings, to the war effort. It also took in silver vessels belonging to London's Chapel Royal to keep safe through the war. That loan fed an urban legend that the cathedral had been hiding the Crown Jewels.
Source: stjohndivine.org
- 1956
Martin Luther King Jr. preaches at an ecumenical service
In 1956 the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached at an ecumenical service in the cathedral. Under Dean James Albert Pike, who took office in 1952, and Bishop Horace Donegan, the pulpit had turned into a platform for national debates over civil rights, McCarthyism and the Cold War.
Source: stjohndivine.org
- 1971
Godspell is adapted from the Gospel of Matthew by a cathedral dramaturg
In 1971 the cathedral's dramaturg, John-Michael Tebelek, adapted the Gospel of Matthew into a stage piece with composer Stephen Schwartz, and it became the hit musical Godspell. The cathedral marked the show's first and second anniversaries, and its final performance, with special liturgies.
Source: stjohndivine.org
- 1974
Duke Ellington's funeral fills the cathedral with 12,500 mourners
Duke Ellington's funeral in 1974 drew jazz luminaries and about 12,500 mourners to the cathedral. Ellington had premiered his Second Sacred Concert at the cathedral in 1968.
Source: stjohndivine.org
- 1982
Philippe Petit walks a wire across Amsterdam Avenue to start the south tower
On September 29, 1982, aerialist Philippe Petit walked a high wire about 150 feet long across Amsterdam Avenue and handed a silver trowel to Bishop Paul Moore. The stunt marked the start of the next phase of construction, which began lifting the South Tower of the West Front. A stoneyard had opened in 1979 to train unemployed neighborhood residents as stonecutters.
Source: nycago.org
- 1984
Edwina Sandys's female Christ sculpture is taken down early during Holy Week
In 1984 the cathedral displayed Christa, Edwina Sandys's sculpture of a female Christ on a crucifix, during Holy Week. It stirred what the cathedral calls a small but historic controversy and was removed early. The piece returned in 2016 as part of The Christa Project.
Source: stjohndivine.org
- 1985
Sculptor Greg Wyatt's Peace Fountain is dedicated in the cathedral close
Cathedral sculptor-in-residence Greg Wyatt unveils his 40-foot bronze Peace Fountain on May 18, 1985, the 200th anniversary of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. The sculpture shows the Archangel Michael standing atop a defeated Satan perched on a giant crab, surrounded by nine spiraling giraffes and a lion and lamb together. A citywide drought forces officials to grant the fountain a one-day exemption from water restrictions for its dedication.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1989
More than 4,000 mourners attend Alvin Ailey's funeral
On December 9, 1989, more than 4,000 people attended the choreographer Alvin Ailey's two-hour funeral. Maya Angelou recited her poem For Alvin Ailey, Max Roach drummed, and a statement from President George H. W. Bush was read aloud. Carmen de Lavallade, Judith Jamison and Mayor David Dinkins delivered eulogies, and dancers performed Ailey's choreography on a makeshift stage around his casket.
“On December 9, 1989, more than 4,000 mourners attended Ailey's funeral at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1990
Mourners gather at the cathedral for Keith Haring's memorial service
A memorial service for the artist Keith Haring was held at the cathedral on May 4, 1990, which would have been his 32nd birthday. Mayor David Dinkins, Dennis Hopper, Jessye Norman, Heather Watts, Jock Soto and former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern were among the speakers. One of the nine bronze casts of Haring's triptych The Life of Christ is installed at the cathedral.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1992
A centennial competition picks Calatrava's greenhouse-like transepts
For its 1992 centennial the cathedral held an architectural competition seeking designs that linked ecology and spirituality. Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava won with a scheme using greenhouse-like structures as the north and south transepts, topped by a glass-enclosed arboretum on the roof of the nave. The following year, in 1993, a lack of funding halted construction of the south tower.
Source: stjohndivine.org
- 2001
A fire damages the cathedral's unfinished north transept
A fire broke out in the unfinished north transept on December 18, 2001, destroying the gift shop and damaging tapestries. The cathedral reopened two weeks later. On February 21, 2017, the city designated the cathedral close an official landmark.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2003
The City Council overturns the cathedral's landmark designation
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the cathedral's main building in June 2003, but the City Council overturned it that October because it left out the rest of the close. Church officials wanted to lease the northern and southern lots for development, and preservationists failed to stop them. Two apartment buildings followed, Avalon Morningside Park and the Enclave, and the close was re-landmarked in 2017 without them.
“The cathedral's main building was made a city landmark in June 2003, but the designation was overturned that October…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2019
A Palm Sunday fire in the crypt fills the cathedral with smoke
A fire broke out in the cathedral's crypt on Palm Sunday, April 14, 2019, and smoke spread through the building. Over the summer and fall of that year the cathedral ran a months-long project to clean every inch of its stone, to protect the stone's stability in the future.
Source: stjohndivine.org
Further reading
- Cathedral of St. John the DivineWikipedia
- Greg Wyatt's Peace Fountain -- 1047 Amsterdam AveDaytonian in Manhattan
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