[104][105] The original Byzantine-Romanesque design was changed to a Gothic design, and Cram was asked to convert many existing features to Gothic style. [30] The completed cathedral was supposed to have been 520 feet (160 m) long and 290 feet (88 m) wide between transepts, while the tower would have been 450 feet (140 m) tall. [52][67], By 1898, St. John's had cost an estimated $750,000,[71] and as per an 1896 estimate, the cathedral was projected to cost at least $5 million when complete. [31][241] The center of the apse contains the choir, located below the great organ. [26], Numerous sites in Manhattan were examined for the new cathedral's location,[27] 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. [152][154] However, during the late 1940s, his successor Bishop Charles Kendall Gilbert turned efforts toward alleviating social issues in the vicinity of the cathedral. The cathedral has also been used for several individual events: The Cathedral of St. John the Divine has also hosted events with spiritual leaders. Museum Planet sells tours of historic places on its iPad app [225], The two pairs of great west doors on the western facade, set beneath the elaborate center portal, were designed between 1927 and 1931 by the designer Henry Wilson. [224][225][227] With a diameter of 40 feet (12 m),[225] the rose window is the largest rose window in the U.S.[228] Flanking the rose window on either side are two grisaille windows, each with two lancet windows under a smaller rose. [225] The center portal also contains depictions of New York City skyscrapers being destroyed in an apocalypse. As a result, construction went on unabated well through the Great Depression. [21], When Henry C. Potter, Horatio Potter's nephew, became the Diocese of New York's assistant bishop in 1883,[22] he convened the trustees to look for an alternate site. Franklin D. Roosevelt campaigned for the fundraiser and the target was reached. [112] Another revision was published just before he died in 1942, and called for a spire above the crossing. We are a welcoming, diverse, multi-cultural congregation. Although the cathedral was designed in 1888, the construction didn’t start until 1892. [12] Potter described the planned cathedral as an "American Westminster Abbey"[15][18] that would rival the Catholic St. Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan. [3][298] The building then became the "Exhibit Hall"[298] and the top stories were removed sometime afterward. In 1923, Bishop William Manning embarked on a fundraiser drive to raise six million dollars to complete the Cathedral. [149][153][155] By that time, a total of $19 million had been spent on construction (equivalent to $204 million in 2019). Cathedral: Heins & LaFarge, 1891–1911, Ralph Adams Cram 1911–42. The immense size of The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine’s interior provides natural acoustics with an impressive organic brilliance of tones. [128][129][130] By May 1924, Manning announced that $2.5 million had been donated within the previous three months, and that work on the nave would soon begin if that rate of donation were to continue. THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SAINT JOHN THE DIVINE 1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street New York, NY 10025 (212) 316-7540 info@stjohndivine.org [124] The new plans required $5–6 million, but would make St. John's the third- or fourth-largest worldwide. The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City may be a religious icon, but a tour of the building and The Close, its surrounding acreage of gardens and buildings. [174], Work on the western facade's towers was restarted with the opening of St. John's stone yard, the Cathedral Stoneworks, which received its first several Indiana limestone blocks in June 1979. [179] St. John is depicted on the trumeau, or vertical pier, between the two pairs of doors within the center portal. 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.