Yesterday, Nick and I visited The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine on our Starbucks-intensive walk back from seeing Hellboy II: The Golden Army.In high school, we visited the Cathedral and took a zany vertical tour that my fear of heights would prevent me from taking now. Then, I learned that construction began in 1892 and, through fits and starts, was still in progress. We toured a craftsmen's workshop and saw scultpers and stone-carvers and felt like maybe the project would be finished in my lifetime.
Not so much, as it turns out. According to Wikipedia, construction ended in 1997, after the completion of work on the statuary of the central portal of the Cathedral's western façade. All energy is now being devoted to repairing smoke damage resulting from a fire in 2001 which wrecked the north trancept.
Still, the Cathedral is quite a site to behold, and it's hard to get a sense of the scale without venturing inside. But, it saddens me that the project has stopped. I'm not sure why, but I feel like a little bit of hope has vanished from the world.
2 comments:
I used to leave near the Cathedral, and I remember the fire. It is sad. Also, the Hungarian Pastry Shop nearby has kitties that live there that you can pet while you eat your hamentosh.
I went to camp on the grounds of the cathedral from the time I was 4 until I started working there when I was 14ish (and worked there summers on and off through my first summer of college). It's a great place for a city kid to go to camp -- lots of open fields and peacocks running amok. We swam every day in either the Columbia or Barnard pools and I remember regularly crossing through the cathedral to get to the north field. It's sad that the playground now holds tall apartment buildings, but it's still a very special place and area.
Post a Comment