page_title: Cathedral of St. John the Divine
section_title: Initial construction
hierarchical_section_title: Cathedral of St. John the Divine / History / Construction and early years / Initial construction
caption_attribution_description: English: Cathedral of St. John the Divine — A stone sculptor working on a capital with an angel
context_page_description: The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, between West 110th Street and West 113th Street.
  The cathedral is an unfinished building, with only ​²⁄₃ of the proposed building completed, due to several major stylistic changes and work interruptions. The original design, in the Byzantine Revival and Romanesque Revival styles, began construction in 1892. After the opening of the crossing in 1909, the overall plan was changed to a Gothic Revival design. The completion of the nave was delayed until 1941 due to various funding shortfalls, and little progress has occurred since then, except for an addition to the tower at the nave's southwest corner. After a large fire damaged part of the cathedral in 2001, it was renovated and rededicated in 2008. The towers above the western facade, as well as the southern transept and a proposed steeple above the crossing, have not been completed.
  Despite being incomplete, the Cathedral of St.
context_section_description: Actual work on St. John's began in early 1893. The trustees initially expected that work would proceed quickly because much of the Morningside Heights plateau was made of shallow bedrock. However, in September 1893, builders unexpectedly hit pockets of soft shale and an underground spring at several locations about 40 feet (12 m) below ground. One of these pockets was located directly below the site for one of the four piers that were to support the cathedral's massive 445-foot (136 m) stone tower. The trustees briefly considered moving the entire cathedral slightly southward. They ultimately decided against moving the cathedral, believing it to be inauspicious if the cornerstone were to be moved. Instead, builders drilled several deep shafts until they hit the bedrock, then poured concrete pits within each shaft. The pits would then accommodate the construction of the tower's piers. The pits were completed in late 1895 at a significantly higher cost than originally estimated.
  By 1898, St. John's had cost an estimated $750,000, and as per an 1896 estimate, the cathedral was projected to cost at least $5 million when complete. As a temporary measure, the Tiffany Chapel was purchased in mid-1898 so that services could be held there. The chapel was placed in the crypt, within the basement. The first services were held in January 1899 within the Tiffany Chapel. The crossing arches, located in the cathedral plot's eastern portion, were completed the following year, though three of the arches were temporarily sealed off until the transepts and nave could be completed. By then, some $2 million had already been spent, even though little appeared to have been completed. Despite large donations from prominent figures such as financiers John Jacob Astor IV and William Waldorf Astor, governor Levi P. Morton, banker J. P. Morgan, and businessman Cornelius Vanderbilt, the trustees continued to raise funds.
  In March 1903, the trustees announced that the next stage of St. John's construction would require $500,000 for building the choir and $200,000 for completing the loft, and that eight massive granite columns would need to be procured to support the roof over the choir. Furthermore, the trustees would build three arches to support the rest of the roof. The choir columns, sourced from Vinalhaven, Maine, were each 54 feet (16 m) tall with a 6-foot (1.8 m) diameter. At the time, they were the world's second-largest stone columns, but because of their size, three of the columns were cracked while being turned. The columns were then transported using a specially constructed barge towed by the large steam tug Clara Clarita. When the columns arrived at Manhattan in July and August 1903, they were rolled onto flatbed trucks and brought to the cathedral's site. Since the builders did not have a derrick that was strong enough to lift the column pieces, they placed another order for wood to build a strong-enough derrick. The columns were finally lifted in July 1904, more than a year after the initial announcement. The walls could not be placed until after the columns had been installed. Work also began in 1903 on the crossing ceiling, which was to contain "Guastavino tiles" designed by Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino.
  The board of trustees implemented a new charter in early 1904, which provided for greater representation of laypeople on the board. By 1905, with $800,000 available for construction, the trustees anticipated that the cathedral would be completed within a decade. The church's great organ was ordered the following year at a cost of $50,000, following a gift by the Morton family. Work also continued on the exterior walls of the choir and the seven surrounding chapels in the apse, which required 100,000 short tons (91,000 t) of granite. Builders estimated that 300,000 short tons (270,000 t) of stone would have been used for the walls once work was completed. Gutzon Borglum was commissioned for some of the initial sculptural elements on St. John's, though his relation with the trustees was strained: he destroyed two angels after cr
caption: Stonemason finishing an angel, 1909
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