Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral

Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral at 415 W. 13th Street in the Quality Hill neighborhood of downtown Kansas City is the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri.¹ Founded in 1870 and built in Transitional Norman Gothic stone from 1888 to 1898, it is among Kansas City’s most architecturally distinguished Victorian-era religious buildings, housing what has been called one of the most important collections of stained glass in the United States.²¹

History

The congregation traces its origin to July 20, 1870, when it was organized as Saint Paul’s Church.²¹ On April 14, 1873, the parish was renamed Grace Church following a two-year campaign led by Senior Warden John R. Balis (1834–1914).¹ The congregation occupied the Quality Hill area of downtown Kansas City during the city’s rapid Gilded Age expansion.

In November 1917, Grace Church merged with Trinity Church, a downtown Episcopal congregation founded in 1883; the union came under Rev. Robert Nelson Spencer.²¹ The merged parish took the name Grace and Holy Trinity Church. On October 29, 1935, the parish was formally consecrated as the Cathedral of the Diocese of West Missouri, taking on its present role as the seat of the bishop.²¹

Architecture

The cathedral complex at 413–415 W. 13th Street was built in stages. The Guild Hall, the first stone structure on the site, was erected from May 1888 through March 1890.²¹ It was designed by brothers Adriance Van Brunt (1836–1913) and John Van Brunt (1854–1924), principals of A. Van Brunt and Company, a Kansas City firm established in 1883.¹

Construction of the present cathedral nave began in June 1893.²¹³ The nave was designed by Frederick Elmer Hill (1857–1929), an MIT-trained architect who had worked for the New York City firm McKim, Mead & White before relocating to Kansas City around 1890.¹³ Hill worked closely with the rector, Dr. Cameron Mann, whose 1888 study of English cathedrals had convinced him that Richardson’s American Romanesque was not the style for the new church.²³ The first worship service in the nave was held on December 16, 1894, and the building was formally consecrated on May 15, 1898.²¹ The bell tower remained unfinished for four more decades; it was completed in May 1938, with William Drewin Wight (1882–1947) as principal architect, after a gift from Henry DeLancy Ashley.¹

The style is Transitional Norman Gothic — rounded window and door frames reflect the Norman influence while pointed arches at the chancel steps draw from the Gothic tradition.²¹³ The nave runs 138 feet long and 60 feet wide; the interior roof peaks 75 feet above the nave floor, which is laid in oak in a chevron pattern.¹³ The nave features five east–west aisles and one north–south cross aisle, with oak pews original to the structure.¹

Notable features

Stained glass

Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral holds a stained glass collection that Wikipedia calls “one of the most important living museums of stained glass in the United States.”¹ The windows span multiple studios and periods; the standard reference on the collection is Randal J. Loy’s single-building monograph, on whose research the published window-by-window surveys draw.⁴⁵ Notable among them is the 1901 Chorister (David) window from the Brooklyn studio of Heinigke & Bowen, designed by Otto Heinigke and possibly Owen J. Bowen — said to be the only confirmed example of their collaborative work in a church west of the Mississippi River.³⁴ The collection also includes Tiffany Studios windows — the Hart window (1926, designed by Agnes Fairchild Northrop, destroyed in a 1929 fire and duplicated for reinstallation in 1930) and “My Jewels” (1935) — the full set of chancel windows fabricated by Powell & Sons (Whitefriars) of London to designs by James Humphries Hogan (1930), and work by Charles Jay Connick, a leading figure in the American Gothic Revival stained glass tradition (Beatitude window, 1944; tower door lunette, 1945).¹⁴ A window from the Gottfried Heinersdorff studio of Munich is described as that studio’s only known window in North America.³

Organ

The nave organ is the work of Gabriel Kney, a German-Canadian organ builder. Installed in 1981 as Opus 94, it is a tracker-action instrument; it was renovated in 2004.²¹ An earlier organ was involved in a fire in 1929 — the same fire that destroyed the Tiffany Hart window.²⁴ The cathedral’s organ program is active in the regional music community.

Interior appointments

The original oak pews, the chevron-pattern nave floor, and the chancel arrangement reflect the influence of Rev. Cameron Mann’s English cathedral research.²¹³ The nave proportions — particularly the 75-foot ceiling height relative to the 60-foot width — create an interior volume consistent with English collegiate Gothic precedents.

See also

Wiki, downtown-kc, gilded-age-kc

Sources

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia — “Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral (Kansas City, Missouri).” — asserts: organized July 20, 1870 as Saint Paul’s Church; renamed Grace Church April 14, 1873 after a two-year campaign by Senior Warden John R. Balis (1834–1914); Trinity Church established 1883, merged November 1917 to form Grace and Holy Trinity Church; became the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri October 29, 1935; Guild Hall constructed May 1888–March 1890 by brothers Adriance Van Brunt (1836–1913) and John Van Brunt (1854–1924), whose firm A. Van Brunt and Company was founded in Kansas City in 1883; nave designed by Frederick Elmer Hill (1857–1929), construction begun June 1893, interior completed December 1894, consecrated May 15, 1898; transitional Norman Gothic limestone; nave 138 feet long, 60 feet wide, 75-foot interior height; oak floor in a chevron pattern, five east–west aisles and one north–south cross aisle, oak pews original to the structure; tower completed May 1938 with William Drewin Wight (1882–1947) as principal architect after Henry DeLancy Ashley’s donation; “one of the most important living museums of stained glass in the United States,” with windows by Tiffany Studios (1930, 1935), Duffner and Kimberly (1911), J&R Lamb Studios (1903), and Charles Jay Connick (1943–1945); Gabriel Kney tracker organ, Opus 94, installed 1981; seat of the diocese, currently under Bishop Amy Dafler Meaux; 415 W. 13th Street, Quality Hill. (Wikipedia describes Hill as “of McKim, Mead & White”; the Loy-book review at ³ clarifies he had left the firm for Kansas City around 1890, before this commission.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹

2. Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral — “History.” — asserts: parish founded as St. Paul’s Church in 1870 and renamed Grace Church in 1873; Grace and Trinity churches united in 1917 under Rev. Robert Nelson Spencer; became the Cathedral Church for the Diocese of West Missouri in 1935; foundation laid 1889; first worship service December 16, 1894; consecrated May 15, 1898; transitional Norman style designed by Frederick E. Hill on concepts from Rev. Cameron Mann, who studied European cathedral designs; the present Parish Hall erected 1890; the Gabriel Kney organ installed 1981 and renovated 2004; recovery from a 1929 organ fire. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

3. Institute for Sacred Architecture — “A Glorious Masterwork” (review of Randal J. Loy’s monograph) — asserts: Hill studied at MIT and worked for McKim, Mead & White in New York before relocating to Kansas City around 1890; Rev. Cameron Mann’s 1888 visit to English cathedrals convinced him Richardson’s American Romanesque was not the answer; nave foundations 1888, construction from June 1893, completed end of 1895; Transitional Norman Gothic; nave 138 feet by 60 feet with 75-foot peaked roof; Guild Hall designed by Adriance and John Van Brunt of Kansas City; stained glass including the Heinigke & Bowen (Brooklyn) Chorister window of 1901, a Gottfried Heinersdorff (Munich) window that is the studio’s only known window in North America, and the local Campbell Glass and Paint Company’s Saint Cecilia window (1902); merger with Trinity Church 1917. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

4. Bruce Appel — Inspired Glass: “Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral” (stained glass survey) — asserts: window-by-window survey — Heinigke & Bowen (Brooklyn) Chorister/David window, 1901, designed by Otto Heinigke and possibly Owen J. Bowen; Tiffany Studios “My Jewels” (1935) and the Hart window (1926, designed by Agnes Fairchild Northrop, destroyed in a 1929 fire and duplicated for reinstallation in 1930); all chancel windows fabricated by Powell & Sons (Whitefriars, London) in 1930 to designs by James Humphries Hogan; J&R Lamb Studios Christ Preaching window (1903, designed by Frederick Stymetz Lamb); Connick Studios Beatitude window (1944) and Tower Door Lunette (1945); Duffner and Kimberly St. John window (1911); Jacoby Art Glass Madonna (1926); Campbell Glass and Paint Company local installations; research credit to Randal J. Loy. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Randal J. Loy — The Glorious Masterworks of Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kansas City, Missouri (2017). ISBN 9780998288901. Ten-year single-building monograph on the cathedral’s history, architecture, stained glass, furnishings, and clergy; the subject of the review at 3; held by University of Missouri Libraries; cathedral’s own book page ↩