page_title: Riverside Church
section_title: Nave
hierarchical_section_title: Riverside Church / Architectural features / Main building / Nave
caption_attribution_description: English: Rear of Riverside Church interior, showing organ, choir loft, bronze statue of Christ
context_page_description: Riverside Church is a Baptist and Congregationalist church in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on the block bounded by Riverside Drive, Claremont Avenue, 120th Street and 122nd Street near Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus and across from Grant's Tomb. It is an interdenominational church that is associated with the American Baptist Churches USA and the United Church of Christ. The church was conceived by philanthropist businessman and Baptist John D. Rockefeller Jr. in conjunction with Presbyterian minister Harry Emerson Fosdick as a large, interdenominational church in Morningside Heights, which is surrounded by academic institutions.
  The original building opened in 1930; it was designed by Henry C. Pelton and Allen & Collens in the Neo-Gothic style. It contains a nave consisting of five architectural bays; a chancel at the front of the nave; a 22-story, 392-foot tower above the nave; a narthex and chapel; and a cloistered passageway that connects to the eastern entrance on Claremont Avenue.
context_section_description: The Gothic-themed nave was inspired by Albi Cathedral, France, the nave is 100 feet (30 m) high, 89 feet (27 m) wide and 215 feet (66 m) long. The width between the overhanging clerestory walls is 60 feet (18 m). The low, wide form of the nave is inspired by those of southern French and Spanish churches. The nave has a metal roof, whose base is surrounded by a shallow arcade. The nave's interior contains a finish of Indiana limestone, the ceilings of its vaults are lined with Guastavino terracotta tiles, and its floor is made of marble.
  Three main vertical sections, which are split by buttresses, comprise the nave's eastern and western walls, each of which has five architectural bays along the portion of the nave adjacent to the aisles; each bay contains a pointed-arch window. Above the stained-glass windows of each bay is a triforium gallery with three colonettes, followed by two adjacent lancet windows in the clerestory, and topped with a rose window. Pointed arches resting on piers that contain engaged columns support each of the clerestory bays and serve as the bases for the ribs under the vaulted ceiling. The engaged columns are surmounted by Corinthian capitals that are decorated with scenes from the Book of Jeremiah. The ceilings of the vaults underneath the triforium galleries are faced with Guastavino tile and contain lighting.
  Above the clerestory, the nave's ceiling is eight stories high. It consists of several vaults, each of which is divided into four segments by diagonally interlocking transverse ribs that do not provide structural support. Eight iron lanterns hang from the transverse ribs and descend lower than the level of the triforium gallery. The vaults contain a finish of acoustic Guastavino tiles, which are mostly gray. The tiles above the chancel and the nave's northernmost two bays are brown because a sealant that was applied in 1953 to increase the organ's acoustical reach has turned yellow over time.
  The nave was built with a seating capacity of either 2,408 or 2,500. The ground level contains 38 rows of oaken pews that have Gothic decoration; five additional rows of pews used to exist at the front of the nave. Two seating galleries overhang the southern portion of the nave. The lower gallery is made of carved wood, has rows of oaken pews on a downward slope, and contains a wooden ceiling with nine lamps. The upper gallery is also made of carved wood and contains oaken pews on a slope but there is no canopy above it. The upper gallery is illuminated with four lanterns that are similar to the eight above the main section of the nave. Behind the southern wall are six double-tiered niches with stone sculptures of ministers and Jacob Epstein's sculpture Christ in Majesty. The Trompeta Majestatis organ projects from the wall beneath the niches.
caption: View of the galleries above the nave, looking south. The Trompeta Majestatis organ on the eastern wall can be seen at left.
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D80", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 7.5.5", "Image DateTime": "2008:09:24 09:18:18", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.5.5", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "254", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "25914", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2886", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/5", "EXIF FNumber": "19/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:09:18 10:26:54", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:09:18 10:26:54", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "19/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "24", "EXIF SubSecTime": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "20", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3872", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2592", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "36", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Hard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}