Evening star., 1939-03-01
Dean bratenahI Dies
Of Long Illness
Al Bethesda Home
Noted Iconoeropher Had
Devoted Himself to
Work at Cathedral

enahl. dean of Washington Cathe-
dral since 1916. died yesterday at his
home. Bradley Hills. Bethesda.
Gravely i'll for several years, he sue
cumbed to cerebral thrombosis not far
from the unfinished diocesan church
on Mount st. Alban, to which he
had devoted himself from the time
the foundation stone was laid, in
1907, until his retirement in 1886.
A native of Cleveland, where he
was born May 4. 1862, the dean was
the son of Charles George and Mary
Grant Fitch Bratenahl. He was ed
ucated at Williams College, from
which he received a B. A. degree in
1883 and D. D. degree in 1908.
Intending to adopt q business
career, he obtained employment in
wholesale warehouse in New York
in 1883 and was a clerk in the ware
house Office until 1886. Thereafter
he represented the Ansonia Clock
Co. in London from 1888 to 1893, and
it was while in England that the
young Ohioan first was attracted to
the ministry. The singing of an
unseen choir prompted him to at
tend service, and in that moment, as
he often said. he yielded to the call
of the mission of Christ in the
world"
Ordained in 1898.
Right Rev. Henry Yates Satterlee,
first Bishop of Washington, brought
the erstWhile clock salesman to
Washington soon after he had be-
come deacon in 1896. and ordained
him here in 1898. His principal
parish charge was that of ST. AL
bans Church at Wisconsin and
Massachusetts avenues, where he
preached and taught until 1912.
Meanwhile, he had been appointed
a canon of the Cathedral establish
ment and was preparing for the
work he was to do as dean.
No other individual on the Amer
ican continent in those days was
familiar with the necessary prin-
clples OF ecclesiastical architecture
and iconography and DR.. Bratenahl
was obliged to go abroad for his ma
terials. In Europe, particularly in
Great Britain, he collected an un-
paralleled library of books on the
art and science of cathedral con-
struction, administration and re-
lated themes. Returning to WASH
lngton he set himself to the monu-
mental task of mastering the entire
subject. The labor, his friends real
lied, would have disheartened a less
Jealous temperament.
Famous as Iconographer.
In the end Dr. Bratenahl was
famous as an outstanding icono-
grapher. His writings were repro
duced in church periodicals every
where as authoritative pronounce
ments Especially to the Cathedral
Age, the quarterly journal of the
National Cathedral Association, he
contributed numerous articles de-
signed to create popular compre-
henslon of the meaning Of cathedral
symbolism.
Bishop Satterlee died before con-
structlon was begun. but the dean
proceeded with his plans under
Right Rev. Alfred Harding and
Right Rev. James E. Freeman. Sec
ond and third bishops, respectively.
AS chairman of the Building Com.
mitee of the Cathedral Chapter. he
represented the trustees in a1l deal
lngs with the contractors and sew
eral groups of architects summoned
to correct and to embellish the orig
NAL design as visioned by George F
Bod.ey and Henry Vaughan.
The dean lived to see the apse, the
great choir and the north transept
OF the Cathedral completed, the en-
tire foundations laid to the line of
the west front, the crypt chapels fin
lshed, the south transept far ad-
vanced. He supervised the erection
OF approximately one-third of the
sacred fame which Bishop Satterlee
and his successors had dreamed and
prayed to raise as "a witness to
Christ in the Nations Capital"
Excelled in Decoration.
But is was in decorative details
that DR.. Bratenahl excelled. The
fhonoos Nf floa