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5/27/2011
Denver, CO PRESS RELEASE
Museum Planet announces the solution to Google. Ever noticed how your best information, the information you purchased, aka your books, is not searchable let alone savable?
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Cathedral of St. John the Divine - New York City, New York
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the largest Gothic structure in the world. The Cathedral is only two-thirds complete. It is the work of two architects. Heinz & Lafarge won the original design contract, and worked off and on from 1892 until 1911. The West front and Gothic Nave are by Ralph Adams Cram, who worked from 1911 to 1941. David H. King Jr. was the original contractor. The idea for the cathedral was originally proposed in 1812, but the Episcopalians were still strongly identified as the representatives of the English/Tories, and anti-British sentiment was still high. No money was raised. After the Civil War, the idea was proposed by Stephen P. Nash, a New York attorney. Bishop Horatio Potter got the cathedral approved at the 1872 Episcopal convention. The financial panic of 1873 intruded, and it was almost two decades before construction began in 1892, under the direction of Henry Codman Potter, nephew of the late Bishop Potter. David H. King Jr. King proposed that a viaduct (for rapid transit trains) be built around Manhattan and a depressed road be built through the center of the city to ease congestion. He believed that a system could pay 5 percent interest to bond holders, and thus would attract many investors. He believed the biggest danger to the city came from congestion. New York was then in a growth race with Chicago, which was ahead in the area of rapid transit. This rather self-serving plan never came about, but it would have ended much early congestion. He was the president of the New York City Park Commission. King was a member of the Metropolitan Club, the Union League, Racquet and Tennis and the New York Yacht Club. He died in his home at the Renaissance Hotel at 512 Fifth Avenue (43rd Street) which his firm had constructed. He had also maintained residences in Jekyll Island, GA; Newport, RI and Eastbourne, England. He left an important art collection of 70 paintings which were sold at auction for $201,000. Included was the portrait of Comtese d'Argenson by Nattier. Interestingly, much of the King collection was by Sir William Van Horne, the builder of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. King is buried with other family members in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Henry Codman Potter (b. 1835 Schenectady, NY – d. NYC 1908)  was the sixth rector of Grace Church (1868-1883) and the Episcopal Bishop of New York (1883-1908). He was educated in the Philadelphia Academy of the Protestant Episcopal Church and in the Theological Seminary of Virginia, where he graduated in 1857. His ministerial focus was on social reform and politics. As rector of Grace Church, he worked to make it welcoming, with working-mens clubs, day nurseries and kindergartens — the latter a then-new invention. He succeeded his uncle Horatio Potter as Bishop of New York in 1883. Potter attacked the Tammany mayor Robert A. Van Wyck in 1900 when he accused city government of taking graft and protecting vice. Potter worked to settle labor disputes, and thought that saloons were the clubs of working men. He wrote on social issues and was author of 'The Citizen in Relation to the Industrial Situation' (1902) and 'The Drink Problem in Modern Life' (1905). Potter initiated the building of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Stephen P. Nash (b. 1821 Albany, NY – d. Bernardsville, NJ 1898) was a prominent lawyer and representative of the Episcopal Church in New York. His father was a descendant of Thomas Nash one of the original settlers in New Haven, CT. Nash was educated in the Albany Academy and in the French College at Chanbly, Canada. He studied for the bar with Esek Cowen a Justice of the Supreme Court in Saratoga Springs, NY. He practiced there and in Albany, but in 1845 moved to NYC and set up the firm Walker and Nash. During his career, he was a partner in several other firms in the city. He established himself in the area of equity law. In 1868, he became a vestryman at Trinity Church, and later he was senior warden there. He represented the Episcopal Church in the triennial general conventions the church held. In 1855, he went to England as an expert witness in the Lauderdale peerage case and testified for Privileges in the House of Lords as to the law of marriage in the colony and State of New York. He was one of the people behind the construction of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He was a Trustee of Columbia University, President of the New York Law Institute and a President and founder of the New York City Bar. Bishop Henry C. Potter presided at his Trinity Church funeral, which was attended by many dignitaries, including Seth Low. Nash was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. |