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. The cathedral is an unfinished building, with only 2⁄3 of the proposed building completed. Despite being incomplete, the Cathedral is the world’s sixth-largest church by area and either the largest or second-largest Anglican cathedral.
About Cathedral of St. John the Divine in brief
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. Despite being incomplete, the Cathedral is the world’s sixth-largest church by area and either the largest or second-largest Anglican cathedral. The floor area of the cathedral is 121,000 sq ft, spanning a length of 601 feet, while the roof height of the nave is 177 feet. Since the cathedral’s interior is so large, it has been used for hundreds of events and art exhibitions. In 2017, the cathedral close was collectively designated an official city landmark by the New York city Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2017. The buildings are designed in several different styles and were built over prolonged periods of construction, with the Leake & Watts Orphan Asylum predating the cathedral itself. In 1828, the first proposal for a grand cathedral for the diocese was made by Bishop John Henry Hobart, who proposed a site near Washington Square Park. The plans were canceled because of objections over erecting such a large building for the Diocese, a derivative of the Church of England, even as many New Yorkers still harbored resentment over the American Revolutionary War.
By 1890, there were 40,000 Episcopalians in Manhattan, the largest bloc of Protestants in the borough. On June 1, 1883, trustees convened to look up an alternate site for an alternate cathedral site. The current cathedral site was selected and rededicated in 2008 after a large fire damaged part of the building in 2001. It was built on land purchased from the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, which opened in 1821. The cornerstone of the asylum was laid in 1838, and it was completed in 1843. The Leake and Watts asylum was incorporated in 1831 under act of the New New York State Legislature, and three years later, 25 acres of land at the corner of Bloomingdale Road and 110th St was purchased. The building is now home to the St. Faith’s House, the Choir School, the Deanery, and the Bishop’s House. It also houses the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House and the American Museum of Natural History. It has been called the “World’s Largest Anglican Cathedral” by the Architectural League of America. The Cathedral is located on a plot of land bounded by 59th Street to the north and 59th St to the south and the Eighth Avenue between 110th and 113th Streets to the east. The church was dedicated in 1873. The original plans for the cathedral were drawn up by Ithiel Town, but were revised several times to keep the costs within the asylum’s budget.
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