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Article: An American cathedral: eighty-three years in the making. (Washington National Cathedral) (Science & Society)
- Article from:
- U.S. News & World Report
- Article date:
- October 15, 1990
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 All rights reserved. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone in 1907, many of the 10,000 onlookers could still remember the Civil War. But only last week was Washington National Cathedral consecrated. Just before the last finial was set upon a spire, George Bush described the church to the gathered thousands as "a symbol of our nation's spiritual life overlooking the center of our nation's secular life."
It seems odd that a grand Gothic cathedral should play any role in the life of a country settled by religious dissenters. Indeed, when plans were first drawn up by architects George Bodley and Henry Vaughan, many argued that a neoclassical or Renaissance or even a modernist ...