The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1911-04-19
Twenty Years in Building and
Only Partially Com
pIeted Now.
YEARS MORE
1t Will Likely Take to Finish
This Great Episcopal
Cathedral.

i vine. the largest eceles!astical struc-
ture In the country and the fourth
largest IN chr!stendo1:, was soIemnIy
conseerated here today Although
only partially constructed, It has az
ready been twenty years IN b1llding
| at cost Of $500, 600 aud 1t nay
take as much longer to complete 1t, az
\ total estimated cost OF $4,000, eco.
Seating accommodations are nov
provided for about 100. peSsors, but
although consocrated for present use,
four9ffths of the work remains to be
done, and the full capacity viii APP
proach 1900 At present the Interior
walls stand In great part as they
| were lad, in jutting tiers OF rough
granite; the vaulted roof of the cross
ing is only a maSeshift of terra-cotta
to be torn down later; the arches. from
which the transsepts will spread are
blocked with temporary concrete baf-
lies; the flooring Itself is but a cement
tbed on which the Mosaics will yet be
Esuperlnposed; only hint OF the full
Iglory appears-and yet so noble is the
harmony CT the ample dimensions and
$50 rich the promise of fuhGllment, that
the fragment opened to the public to-
day is ITSELF an Invitation to.worship.
How has this mighty undertaking
been inanced?r asks Canon Robert
Ellis Jones. by the same devotion
and sacrifice" he answers, (which ac-
tuated the best of the medlaeval ca-5
thedral builders. The cathedral has
no official source of revenue. No or
ganized effort has been made. to draw
on the interest of EpiscopaHans. and
yet gifts of all sizes have flowed in.
from all quarters. Five dollars come
every year from seamstreEs up the
Hudson, The Inmate librarian or a
city refuge gave one-tenth OF his sal-i
airy, ana dozen old men in a church
home earned by making nets and
hammoclSs $3.50, which they begged
might be built into the cathedral /,
a revenue thus derived cannot be
estimated In advance, but requests are
/ now known which, as they mature,
will be sufficient to insure continued
progress. The choir is now rooted and
partly cased with the limestone which
will later finish the entire interior. The
eight giant columns, each IS feet
high, exclusive Of the capitals, which
cluster about the altar, between the
aTbulatory and the chancel, are in
place, With the names carved upon
them of those whom their donors wish
to commemorate Two of the seven
chapels in the apse OF the chancel !
have been completed, and with them
their stained glass windows. These
are the gifts of August Belmont and
Mrs. Edward King. Seven tapestries
depicting sacred subjects and woven
originally for Pope Adrian VII in 1880
at Rome. already hang in the spaces
between the windows Of the apse and
the full complement will add three
more. The organ and carved choir
stalls, the gift of Levi p. Morton, are
in place. The great crossing at the In
itersection of the nave and the trans-
cepts, designed for the main assemb-
ling place of the congregation, is
rooted over, and with the unfinished
Transcripts and the nave shut in from
the weather by concrete screens. the
remaining wings and work on the
lantern and towers above can go on
without annoyance to worshippers, !
each finished unit to be thrown open
upon the main body of the edifce as
Ut becomes ready for use.
In style the cathedral is late Ro-
ranesque. with strong traces of BY
zantIne influences, or as the architect
in chief, c. Grant LaFargo, son of
the late John LaFargo, describes it,
so far as the cathedral in the larger
sense is Gothic. 1t is the Gothic Of
very early period, the time of trans
ition from the simple Romanesquc TO
the more complex organism" No
where is the constructive scheme
based on the pointed arch. The mys-
terry of long vistas down dim, pillared
aisles has been exchanged for the sol- /
cmn grandeur of great central cross
ing. wherein the congregation may
mass within sound OF the preachers
voice. lighted from above 10y domed i
lantern OF 5ixteen windows. surmount-
ed in. turn by a central tower.
: The site is the most commanding
in the city. on what once was the bat
! tlctield OF Harlem Heights. overlook
( ing the main plain cS Manhattan. the
! Hudson rive-, and Long Island Sound.
1t occupies three city blocks, bounded
by tICth and 11S:h streets to north
and south. and Mornlntside Drive and
: Amsterdam Avenue to East and West.
The cathedral i;seN is. crucifo-m
structure SEQ feet long, s. feet wide,
across nave and aisles, 2Ss feet wide
across transepts, having tive western
towers n angles made BY arms Of the
D . y