Stanford Memorial Church
Stanford Memorial Church (also referred to informally as MemChu)[1] is located on the Main Quad at the center of the Stanford University campus in Stanford, California, United States. It was built during the American Renaissance[2] by Jane Stanford as a memorial to her husband Leland. Designed by architect Charles A. Coolidge, a student of Henry Hobson Richardson, the church has been called "the University's architectural crown jewel".[3]
Designs for the church were submitted to Jane Stanford and the university trustees in 1898, and it was dedicated in 1903. The building is
Stanford Memorial Church was the earliest and has been "among the most prominent" non-denominational churches on the West Coast of the United States. Since its dedication in 1903, the church's goal has been to serve the spiritual needs of the university in a non-sectarian way.[4] The church's first chaplain, David Charles Gardner, began a tradition of leadership which has guided the development of Stanford University's spiritual, ethical, and academic relation to religion. The church's chaplains were instrumental in the founding of Stanford's religious studies department, moving Stanford from a "secular university"[5] at the middle of the century to "the renaissance of faith and learning at Stanford"[6] in the late 1960s, when the study of religion at the university focused on social and ethical issues like race and the Vietnam War.
History
Early history
Stanford Memorial Church is located at the center of Stanford University,
Leland Stanford died in 1893; legal disputes tied up the Stanford estate and prevented the completion of the university for several years. When the disputes were settled in Jane Stanford's favor, she was finally able to put into motion her wish for a church.[7] In 1898, she and the university trustees requested design submissions for the church.[13] In 1890, Jane Stanford visited her friend Maurizio Camerino in Venice, an artist with a reputation for producing high-quality mosaics; she and her husband had met him years earlier during one of their many trips to Europe.[note 2] Stanford commissioned Camerino and his company, the Antonio Salviati studios, to produce mosaics for the church.[15][note 3] Stanford was involved in every part of the church's design and construction. She was determined that the quality of the stonework of Memorial Church should equal the medieval churches she admired in Europe.[17][note 4] According to Memorial Church chaplain Robert C. Gregg, "The grandeur of the church, articulated in its details, greatly occupied Jane Stanford—the structure was to be without flaw".[19]
Groundbreaking for the church took place in May 1899; construction began in January 1900.
Jane Stanford once remarked: "While my whole heart is in the university, my soul is in that church".[15] She died in 1905, and so did not live to see the damage caused by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.[15] Her funeral took place in the church, which was called one of her most important accomplishments and "the truest reflection of her visionary leadership",[21] in March 1905. Clergy from several religious traditions, including a Rabbi, a Presbyterian minister, a Methodist minister, an Episcopal bishop, and a Baptist minister, officiated at the service.[22]
Earthquakes
Stanford Memorial Church has suffered two major earthquakes, in 1906 and in 1989. Although extensively damaged, the church was restored after each. The 1906 quake wrecked much of the church, felled the spire, cracked the walls, and "injured beyond repair" the mosaics and Carrara marble statuary in the chancel.[23] The main cause of the severity of the damage was that the church's original construction failed to attach the crossing structure to the surrounding masonry and roof structures.[24][25] When the earthquake hit the church, the crossing structure moved independently from the rest of the building, gouging gaping holes in the roofs over the east and west transepts, the nave, and chancel.[25] Its original 12-sided, 80-foot spire and its adjoining clock tower fell on top of the chancel roof, destroying the tower dome's "frescoed Victorian interpretation of God's eye—complete with tear—surrounded by cherubs and shooting star".[26] The debris hit and destroyed the marble sculptures of the twelve apostles that decorated the altar.[27][25]
The spire was never repaired and the tower was removed and replaced by a simpler structure; however, the clock was saved and preserved in a temporary structure behind the church before eventually being placed in another building on campus, the Stanford Clock Tower.[15][28] University trustees considered re-building the tower, and even looked at possible designs, but eventually chose not to rebuild it because they could not agree on its design, and chose instead to replace the tower with a domed skylight.[29][25][note 5] The crossing structure also pushed the roof of the nave forward. The roof's weak connection to the church's front facade caused the facade to fall into the Inner Quad courtyard;[25] as mosaic expert Joseph A. Taylor put it, "its wondrous mosaic was blown out and totally destroyed".[15] The only mosaics not destroyed in the quake were the four angels that decorated the crossing.[27] The back of the church, with several hundred feet of arcades, was also completely leveled because it too was not joined to the rest of the building.[25]
Repairs of the earthquake damage began in 1908, despite misgivings from some university administration regarding its cost; it was closed between 1906 and 1913 while it was repaired.[25][13] The university president had to postpone academic projects to pay for the church's restoration, as well as the restoration of the entire campus. Ultimately, they chose to repair Memorial Church because they recognized that it was "integral to the identity of the young university".[25] The church and the Old Chemistry building were the only two buildings in the university's Inner Quad that were repaired.[30] The extent of the damage was such that the church had to be completely rebuilt. The entire church, except for its surviving crossing structure and offices, was dismantled stone by stone, which, along with the windows, were labelled and stored, and were later relaid in their original positions.[27][23] According to architecture historian Willis L. Hall in his 1917 book about the church, "In reconstruction great care has been taken to assure permanence".[23] The stones were securely bolted to each other, "making the whole structure practically one massive hollow rock on a great steel foundation skeleton".[23] The tile floor was replaced with cork.[31] The building's crossing received a tiled hipped roof and an oculus, which lit the interior of the church, and was added above the renovated dome, which had a frescoed ceiling decorated with bronze designs as opposed to the gold leaf present before the earthquake.[29] The original rose window above the front facade was replaced with one with a simpler arch shape because it was more similar to the style of the rest of the buildings in the Inner Quad.[31]
The dedication, which was engraved in large letters below the facade mosaic, was replaced by a smaller dedication plaque placed at the lower left of the facade, a choice the university alumni magazine called "a tremendous improvement".[31] Camerino's design of the mosaics that were to fill in the empty space created by the removal of the original dedication, which he offered free of charge, were rejected in favor of a simple version created by John K. Branner (son of university president John Casper Branner) in 1914. Camerino, who did not appraise the damage until 1913, restored the interior mosaics. He had saved the original drawings in Venice, so he removed and re-fabricated the chancel mosaic, and redesigned the entire exterior mosaic.[15] The Stanford alumni magazine, in early 1917, after the completion of the interior mosaics, declared the renovation complete, stating that "the church, for almost the first time since it was begun, is finished".[31] Its appearance after the renovation was "significantly transformed".[25]
In 1989 the church was damaged again, in the
The four mosaic angels in the pendentives, which decorated its high rounded walls directly below the church's dome and served as the setting beds for hundreds of thousands of tesserae, were severely damaged.[33] Parts of the fallen mosaics were stolen, but later returned anonymously.[25] The angels' damage caused large chunks of mortar and glass to fall to the floor 80 feet (24 m) below, while other sections "were left hanging by the sheer geometry of their arched shape".[33] An eight-foot mosaic section of an angel's left wing in the church's northeast corner fell 70 feet (21 m) to the floor. Several stones from the east arch wall fell onto pews in the balcony, and the organ-loft railing collapsed inward. Although the damage was minor, the church remained closed until 1992 while restoration, as well as a bracing project to protect the building from future earthquakes, without changing the building's decorations, was carried out. The university hired a team of contractors, structural engineers, architects, and conservation specialists to develop a renovation plan, which was paid for by a $10 million fundraising drive. Many donations came from undergraduates, and the university's board of trustees approved the plan before its funding was in place because they recognized the church's importance to Stanford.[34][25]
In this restoration, the entire crossing was strengthened by bracing it behind the dome and securing it to the superstructure of the building.[32] The restoration team evaluated every decoration in the church and made improvements and changes as necessary, in order to preserve the building's interior elements. They also discovered that the crossing's four large arches were hollow; they also found remnants of the steel frame that supported the original clock tower within a 20" void space in the church's arched walls. They had to fill the void with more than 470 tonnes of concrete and several layers of reinforcing steel in order to improve the walls' stability, an accomplishment the Alliance called "one of the most challenging retrofit feats implemented at Stanford".[25]
The roofs, which had not been replaced since 1913, were rebuilt with plywood diaphragms, 30,000 new red clay tiles were installed, and the stones from the decorative arches were reinserted. The wing of the damaged angel was restored;[32] Stanford University hired William Kreysler and Associates to create a new backing system to secure this angel and three other mosaic angels to the base of the dome, which included replacing the original bonding materials (a weak lime mortar), with steel angles that anchored the mosaics to the walls and with a stronger polymer resin.[33][25] [note 6] The renovators found a piece of the original mosaic from the vestibule wall, which had a Chi Rho design, in the foundation, and inserted it into the Communion Table in the chancel, linking the current building with the pre-1906 church.[35] The Victorian chandeliers were repaired and rewired, and the transept balconies, which had been closed for twenty years because they were declared unsafe, were reopened, after the false doors on the south side of each balcony were replaced by emergency exits and connected to existing staircases on the other side of the wall.[36] A new sprinkler system and a new audio system was also installed.[25] Stanford Memorial Church was rededicated by chaplain Robert C. Gregg on November 1, 1992.[36]
Influence
Gifted as a preacher as well as a jazz pianist, [B. Davie] Napier turned the chapel into what some regarded as Christian theater—the introduction of jazz and other types of experimental worship as well as provocative preaching. Suddenly a jam-packed Memorial Church became the fashionable place for undergraduates to congregate on weekends.
Stanford professor Dr. Van Harvey[6]
According to Stanford professor
Cuninggim also charged that Stanford's religious policies were inadequate compared to other prominent U.S. universities. Two attempts were made to found a seminary to train pastors and religious leaders at Stanford, in 1921 and in 1940, but both failed.[37] Harvey speculated that if Stanford had established a seminary like other prestigious universities, its religious studies department and the "ethos" of the entire institution would be different.[5] In 1966, however, the university's Board of Trustees got a court order that allowed them to change the non-sectarian clause in Stanford's charter so that they could expand the university's religious program, which included permitting sectarian worship services at Stanford Memorial Church.[38]
Stanford did not employ a full-time professor in religion until 1951 and did not establish a religious studies department until 1973, later than most other universities in the U.S. Earlier courses in religion were largely offered by the chaplains of Stanford Memorial Church. David Charles Gardner offered a course in Biblical history and literature beginning in 1907, and by 1910, he was teaching
In the 1960s, the study of religion at Stanford began to focus more on social and ethical issues like race and the
Stanford University was the first major educational institution in the United States that conducted same-sex
Chaplains
Stanford Memorial Church, throughout its history, has been served by chaplains who have been influential amongst the Stanford University student body and community at large. R. Heber Newton, "distinguished writer"[44] and former rector at All Souls Church in New York, was handpicked by Jane Stanford to serve as the church's first pastor; he resigned after four months in 1903 "because he disagreed with Mrs. Stanford on some aspects of church management".[45] According to Stanford biographer Robert W. P. Cutler, "Newton's tenure had been a disappointment to Mrs. Stanford".[46] David Charles Gardner, who replaced Newton, served the church from 1902 to his retirement in 1936.[47] Stanford also handpicked Gardner as Newton's assistant because she was impressed with his "parish work" in Palo Alto.[44] Gardner went on to teach courses in Biblical history and literature at Stanford.[47] Influential English professor and Stanford historian Edith R. Mirrielees[48] called Gardner "a preacher of only indifferent ability", but considered him "a strength to the whole university". Mirrieless considered Gardner the prime mover behind the creation of the Stanford Home for Convalescent Children,[49] established in 1919, which eventually became the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
Stanford's next two chaplains,
Staff
Stanford Memorial Church is run by the Stanford Office for Religious Life, headed by the current Dean for Religious Life, Tiffany Steinwert. She replaced the Very Rev. Prof. Jane Shaw who was the dean for 4 years, 2014–18.[62] Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann serves as Senior Associate Dean. Stanford has two associate deans: the Rev. Joanne Sanders and Sughra Ahmed.[63]
Rabbi Karlin-Neumann is Stanford's first associate dean from outside the Christian tradition. Before coming to Stanford, Karlin-Neumann had been a
Joanne Sanders, an Episcopal priest, has worked at Stanford since 2000. She has degrees in theology,
Robert Huw Morgan, a native of Wales, has been Stanford Memorial Church's organist since 1999. He attended St John's College, Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar, and earned two doctorates at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he served on staff as a pianist and conductor. At Stanford, he serves as a lecturer in Organ, Director of the Stanford University Singers, and Director of the Memorial Church Choir.[68][69]
Murder
Architecture
Stanford Memorial Church is part of a linked, complex system of arcades that make up the Quad, which serves to unify the entire complex, is more reminiscent of European public spaces than American ones, and "is probably one of the most important feature of the original Stanford architecture".
The original designs for Memorial Church and much of the university were made in 1886 by prominent American architect
Jane Stanford's taste and knowledge of both contemporary and classical art is evident in several aspects of the plan, appearance, and architecture of the church, which "dazzle the eye yet also produce an atmosphere of quiet contemplation".[73] According to Joncas, "the church emulates the 'glorious color' of the great European cathedrals", especially those in Italy.[75] Although the iconography in the church is Christian, Stanford was a "late Victorian progressive",[73] and chose the art less for its religious themes and more for its "humanitarian ethics".[73] She requested that the designs include women, "to show the uplifting influence of religion for women";[76] Architectural historian Willis L. Hall claims that there are more depictions of women than in most church imagery at the time.[76] Art historian Judy Oberhausen reports that Stanford used compendium of biblical illustrations like The Story of the Bible by Charles Foster, which contained 300 illustrations and summarized the events and stories she wished to depict in the church's windows and mosaics.[73]
Jane Stanford's design included inspirational messages placed throughout the church in the form of inscriptions carved into its walls and enclosed in carved frameworks.[77] As Barbara Palmer of the Stanford Report stated, Stanford "had her religious beliefs literally carved into the church's sandstone walls".[78] For example, the following quotations can be found in the church's east transept:[note 8]
Religion is intended as a comfort, a solace, a necessity to the soul's welfare; and whichever form of religion furnishes the greatest comfort, the greatest solace, it is the form which should be adopted be its name what it will.
The best form of religion is trust in God, and a firm belief in the immortality of the soul, life everlasting.[79]
Plan
The church is a
Exterior
The chief building material of the church is buff sandstone, which came from the Goodrich Quarry (also called the Greystone Quarry)[80] in the Almaden area of San Jose, was delivered by train and rough-cut in the university Quad. Gregg credits the high quality of the stonework to church and university builder John D. McGilvray.[18] The church is roofed with terracotta tiles of the Italian imbrex and tegula form. The nave, chancel, and transepts appear to project from the square central structure, roofed with tiles and a small skylight above its center. Memorial Church originally had a central bell tower with an 80-foot tall, twelve-sided spire, but this was lost as a result of the 1906 earthquake.[25]
The church's
In the upper zone of the facade, surrounded by more elaborate stonework and "lacy carving",
The gable and surrounding surfaces contain the church's largest mosaic, created by Maurizio Camerino's studio, which they rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake.[14] Measuring 84 feet (26 m) wide at the base and 30 feet (9.1 m) in height, at the time of its completion, it was the largest mosaic in the U.S. It depicts a group of men, women and children, 47 in all, surrounding and "paying close heed"[82] to Christ, the mosaic's central figure, and includes a landscape with "waving palms and a gleaming sky"[82] behind Christ. The exterior mosaic took 12 men two years to complete.[14]
After Jane Stanford's death, the mosaic popularly gained the name "
Interior
Jane Stanford has been described as having a "Victorian aversion to blank space"
The church is entered through three bronze doors adorned with angels, a recurring motif throughout the church. The doors open up into a
Above the
Directly above the crossing is a
The chancel, according to Hall, contains "artistic work of a kind seldom seen anywhere".[82] The raised tiled floor of the chancel curves outward into the body of the church, and is approached by seven marble steps. The sanctuary is raised further, and enclosed by a marble altar rail behind which is an altar carved from white Carrara marble by L.M. Avenali. The altar supports a "simple unadorned brass cross that reflects the colors of the mosaics surrounding it."[91] The cross was made by William van Erp and was dedicated to the memory of Jane Stanford in 1948.
Behind the altar is a mosaic reproduction of Rosselli's "Last Supper". Around the lower walls of the chancel are twelve niches decorated with golden mosaic tiles. They hold candles, but originally held statues of the twelve apostles, destroyed in 1906 and were never replaced. According to local legend, the cherubim carved in stone above the golden niches and in the pillars' capitals are illustrations of children living on campus at the time of the church's construction.[91] To the west side of the chancel stands brass lectern in the form of a reading angel, which Jane Stanford brought from Europe and dedicated to her husband on the anniversary of his birth in 1902.[92]
Three stained glass windows in the apse depict the nativity, crucifixion, and ascension of Christ. The mosaics between them show angels, those on the left carrying a cross, those on the right carrying a crown. On the longer sections of the chancel wall, on either side of the windows, are mosaics depicting a choir of angels. Above them is a tier of mosaics with representations of the prophets and kings of Israel. Other mosaics abound in the transepts, clerestory, and the choir loft at the northern end of the church. A series of mosaics in the upper transepts depict Old Testament figures on the east side and Christian saints on the west side. On Jane Stanford's direction, they alternate male and female.[83]
The arches, balcony rails, and pillars throughout the church have relief carvings created by a team of 10 men who worked for two years from scaffolding.[93] A large double pillar before the entrance of the west transept have inscriptions dedicated to members of the Stanford family. After the 1989 earthquake, a third of the west transept was converted into a small chapel. The altar and chairs in this chapel were designed by Bay Area artist Gail Fredell who decorated the chapel's altar by using Salvatti's original mosaics, which had been stored since the church's reconstruction following the 1906 earthquake.[94]
Windows
According to architectural historian Willis L. Hall, the church's 20 large
Stanford chose the life of Christ for the windows' theme, inspired by the religious paintings by European master painters such as
Oberhausen, who has studied the source of the mosaics and windows, states that at least four stained glass windows were inspired by the paintings of Pre-Raphaelite artists that were enjoying a resurgence in popularity at the time. These windows are: "Christ in the Temple" in the east transept, based upon a painting by William Holman Hunt; "The Annunciation" in the east nave, inspired by a work by Frederic Shields; "The Nativity" in the chancel, based upon a painting by Edward Fellowes-Prynne; and "The Good Shepherd" in the west transept, inspired by a painting by Sibyl C. Parker, the only female artist represented in the artwork of the church.[73] None of the windows of Stanford Memorial Church required replacement after the 1906 quake, except for "the famous rose window of the original structure" in the organ loft which was replaced by the current large, central arch window.[86] This window, entitled "Lilies of the Field", is the only window in the church that cannot be viewed from the inside because it is blocked off by the central organ.[98] There is a cross in the center of this window made of "faceted pieces of glass that are inset like gems",[98] which sparkle when light strikes it.
The church's clerestory contains many smaller windows of individuals from the Bible or Christian history. The windows in the nave above the east arcade depict the following Old Testament figures:
|
|
|
|
Title | Inspired by |
---|---|
" The Nativity "
|
Edward Fellowes-Prynne |
" The Crucifixion "
|
Ernst Deger |
The Ascension
|
Johann Karl Loth ("Carlotto")[note 13]
|
Mosaics
The mosaics that decorate Stanford Memorial Church, which Taylor considers "a perfect complement to Frederick Lamb's stained-glass windows", are "virtually everywhere" inside the church.[15] According to Gregg, Jane Stanford came up with the idea, calling it "idiosyncratic by some architectural historians",[99] of extensively decorating Memorial Church's interior and facade, similar in style to the mosaics in many of the churches she and her husband admired during their travels in Europe. One of the reasons she chose mosaics was because of the similar weather in Italy and Northern California, where the moderate climates and rainy seasons in both settings protect the images from erosion and clear the pollution that accumulates on many buildings in large cities. As Hall states, the "mosaics on the facade are always clear and brilliant."[100] During the Stanfords' 1883 tour of Europe, they visited Byzantine churches in Constantinople and St Mark's Basilica in Venice. They met and befriended Maurizio Camerino, the manager of the Antonio Salviati studios, which had just completed restoring the mosaics at St Mark's.[14]
Stanford began working with Camerino, who by that time had bought the Salviati studios, in 1899, and spent two months in Venice in the fall of 1900, selecting the watercolors created as the mosaics' patterns by Camerino's chief designer, Antonio Paoletti.
The mosaic project began in 1900, took five years to complete, and cost US$97,000.
The mosaic adorning the church's chancel is a reproduction of Rosselli's fresco of the Last Supper from the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Camerino obtained permission from Pope Leo XIII to reproduce it at Stanford Memorial Church.[15] Unlike other works, which were reproduced frequently, it was the only reproduction of Rosselli's fresco at the time.[103] There are 12 mosaics in each transept balcony that are split into two sets of six, creating an arc of six mosaics, ten windows, and six mosaics. Most of the church's mosaics were made from 1/8-inch tiles; larger 3/4-inch tiles were used on the higher mosaics, and smaller 1/4-inch tiles were used in "The Last Supper" mosaic.[101][note 17]
Title(s) | Location |
---|---|
"Christ Welcoming the Righteous into the Kingdom of God"[note 18] | Outside facade |
Love, Faith, Hope, and Charity mosaics | Below facade, between windows |
Monogram medallions[note 19] | Vestibule |
Two cherub groups[note 20] | In the frieze over the doors from the vestibule to the nave |
"Our Lord on His Throne Surrounded by the Four Evangelists, Apostles, Kings and Friends" | Under the organ loft and over the doors |
"The Prayer of Hannah", "Ahasuerus Selects Esther to be his Queen", "The Judgement of Solomon", "Saul Casts His Spear at David", "God's Promise to Solomon when Building the Temple "
|
East Nave, under the arches of the east wall |
" The Garden of Eden"[note 21]
|
East door, near the pilaster |
" The Deluge", "The Tower of Babel", "Moses Saved From the Water"
|
East clerestory over the arches |
Zacharias the Conception of John the Baptist", "Daniel's Prophecy"
|
East clerestory between the windows |
"Last Supper", "Seraph Choir"[note 22] | The wall of the chancel |
" Samuel", "Jeremiah "
|
Above the east apse |
"David", "Elijah", "Moses", "Isaiah" | Above the west apse |
The four archangels emerging from clouds.[note 23] | Over the four pilasters supporting the dome |
Spandrels decorated in mosaic | Dome ceiling |
Child's face[note 24] | Triangular area in front of dome |
" finds a Captain for His Hosts" | Starting at the church entrance, the west wall of the nave, between the windows[106] |
"Old Testament Prophecies Concerning the Coming of Christ "
|
Over the west door, near the pilaster |
"Moses Receiving the Tablets of the Law", "Joshua Successor of Moses", "David Anointed for the First Time", "Meeting of David and Abigail", "David Singing His Psalms" | West clerestory, over the arches |
" Joseph Sold by His Brothers", "Jacob Going to Canaan", "Isaac Blessing Jacob", "Dream of Jacob", "Abraham Restrained From offering up Isaac "
|
West clerestory between windows |
" Naomi"[note 25]
|
East Transept Gallery wall |
" | West Transept Gallery wall |
Organs
Stanford Memorial Church houses five organs, a "situation only a few places in the nation can boast".[68][note 27] The presence of high-quality organs makes Stanford an ideal location for accomplished musicians, and the sanctuary one of California's best settings for instrumental and choral performance. The church's organist is Robert Huw Morgan.[108][68]
Stanford Memorial Church's first organ, the 1901 Murray Harris, named for its builder Murray M. Harris, sits in the upstairs gallery and is still in use.[68] Damaged in the 1906 earthquake, the organ was rebuilt in 1925, enlarged in 1933, and thoroughly restored in 1996. It features three manuals (keyboards for the hands), 57 stops, and over 3,700 pipes.[68][109] The Murray Harris plays music from the Romantic period;[note 28] its sound has been described as "romantic [and] undulating" and "like a low-decibel airplane engine revving up"[107] Morgan compares the Murray Harris to both a Rolls-Royce and a Bentley.[110][107]
The Fisk-Nanney organ, which many consider one of the best organs in the world, was built in 1985 and is also housed in the church's upstairs gallery.
The Fisk-Nanney is a four-manual Baroque-type organ with 73 ranks. It uses a "combination of elements from historic East German, North German, and French organs plus dual temperaments", and is "the first instrument in the history of organ building that is capable of reproducing nearly all organ music written from the 16th through the 18th centuries".[109] The organ, which "has remarkable complexity",[110] features both French- and German-style reeds and principal choruses. It is equipped with a Brustpositiv division in meantone temperament. A lever allows the remaining divisions to alternate between well temperament and meantone temperament, a feature made possible by the inclusion of five extra pipes (two for each sharp key) per octave.[109]
Morgan describes the organ's sound as "delicious" and "visceral", ringing with "'incredible clarity' and 'dark color'", and compares it to driving a Maserati.[110] He insists that the best place to listen to the Fisk-Nanny is not upstairs in the gallery where it sits, but in the church, "about halfway down the nave".[110] In 2005 Morgan performed the complete organ works of Dieterich Buxtehude during a series of recitals, eight hours in all, to celebrate the organ's 20th anniversary. During the 2009–2010 school year, Morgan commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Fisk-Nanney organ and his 10th year at Stanford in a concert series of the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach, which took 18 hours to complete.[110]
Memorial Church's third organ, the Katherine Potter-Brinegar organ, was built in 1995 and was named for the spouse of Stanford alumni
The
In 2010 the church received on long-term loan a five-rank Tudor-style organ built by Hupalo & Repasky Pipe Organs. It is a recreation based upon the work of English organ builders and restorers Martin Goetze and Dominic Gwynn and of the discovery in 1995 of the upper boards, grid, and table of a rare English organ, one of only three out of the five organs of the type in existence. It is a "small but tonally versatile" organ typical of the Tudor era of the 16th century.[109]
The Tudor organ's 200 pipes are made from metals with high tin content, and its façade pipes have been gilded and embossed. Its case, which was inspired by organ cases in churches in Wales and Stanford-on-Avon, is made of stained white oak, with hand-carved panels of linen fold and Tudor rose (inspired by the Tudor rose on Shrewsbury Tower at St. John's College in Cambridge) carvings. The Tudor's keys are made of European pear wood; its sharps are made of ebony. It has two large feeder bellows that supply the organ's wind. The organ's sound is "surprisingly full and has a singing bell-like quality".[109]
Services and facilities
Although the Stanfords were religious and viewed "spiritual and moral values as essential to a young person's education and future citizenship", they were not formally committed to any Christian denomination.[4] As a result, Jane Stanford decreed, from the beginning of Stanford Memorial Church's history, that the church be non-denominational. She believed that adopting this philosophy would "serve the broadest spiritual needs of the university community".[4] The church's first chaplain, Charles Gardner, declared on the day of its dedication that the church's goal was to serve the spiritual needs of the university in a non-sectarian way.[4] The Stanfords' goal was that moral instruction would occur at the church, as demonstrated in the inscriptions carved into its walls, which was influenced by the late 19th-century liberal Protestantism they embraced.[111] As former Stanford chaplain Robert C. Gregg states, "The Stanfords sought to protect free intellectual inquiry—in classroom, laboratory, and church—from any interference prompted by the caution or dogmatism of religious authorities".[112]
Stanford Memorial Church was the earliest and has been "among the most prominent" non-denominational churches on the West Coast of the United States.[4] Multi-faith services are held at Stanford Memorial Church, in addition to denominational and non-denominational Christian services. As many as 150 weddings or renewal ceremonies take place in the church each year, for current and former students and their children or grandchildren, for Stanford faculty and staff members, and for others connected to the university.[29][113][note 29] Memorial services, conducted by Stanford's dean and other chaplain officials, for students, alumni, faculty, and staff are also conducted at the church.[114]
Members of the university community use Memorial Church for "quiet, for reflection, and for private devotions".[111] Catholic masses are held in the church several times a week.[115][116]
See also
- Arlis Perry
Footnotes
- typhoidshortly before his sixteenth birthday. A church had been envisioned but not started when the senior Leland Stanford died in 1893.
- ^ When the Stanfords' son died in Florence in 1884, Camerino, who spoke fluent English, rushed to their side to help them as an interpreter.[14]
- Stanford's museum and decorated the vestibule of the university's mausoleum.[16]
- ^ Both Gregg and ceramic expert Joseph Taylor recount what Taylor called the "legend" about Stanford's practice of using her notched parasol to gauge if Memorial Church's stone carvings were as deep as the churches she admired in Europe. Both Gregg and Taylor reported that Stanford would personally examine construction with the church's architect and builder, carrying her parasol and wearing long skirts, even up to the highest scaffolding.[15][18]
- ^ According to the Stanford Quake ‘06 Centennial Alliance, an organization dedicated to studying the effect of the 1906 earthquake on Stanford University, the choice improved the church's design. The alliance also reported that contemporary engineers praised the quality of the reconstruction, which was said to be the best of its kind at the time.[25]
- ^ William Kreysler described the repair in detail in Flash Point Magazine in 2013.[33]
- ^ Gregg also wrote Glory of Angels, the 1995 book about MemChu.
- ^ For a complete list of the inscriptions, see Hall pp. 39–45.
- ^ Love is represented by a mother with wings encircling children.
- ^ Domus Dei Aula Coeli ("The house of God, the forecourt of heaven") above the right door; Domus Dei Locus Orationis ("The house of God, the house of prayer") above the left door.
- ^ Lamb created "subtle shadows" in the angel's robe by using layers of colored glass and white glass. He also created a luminescent effect by setting the angel against a dark background.
- ^ The best time to view these windows is in the early morning.
- Transfiguration of Christ.
- ^ In 1992, Camerino's family, in honor of the friendship between the Camerino and Stanford families, donated three watercolor studies of the Memorial Church mosaics, painted by Paoletti, to Stanford University. They were displayed in a back room at the headquarters of Salviati & Company in Venice before the donation, which took two years to procure. The watercolors, which measured 3 feet by 6 feet, included Paoletti's rendering of the church's exterior mosaic. University archivist Maggie Kimball called the paintings "important pieces of university history."[14]
- ^ This figure is the equivalent of almost US$3 million in 2017.
- ^ After the mosaics were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, they were able to be recreated because the original designs had been stored in the Salviati & Company studios.
- ^ List taken from Hall, pp. 31–33
- ^ Commonly known as "The Sermon on the Mount"
- ^ Forms the Greek letters alpha and omega and Christ's initials (Chi Rho).
- ^ Cherubs holding tablets with the inscriptions, Domus Dei Locus Orationis ("The House of God, the place of prayer") and Domus Dei Aula Coeli ("The House of God, the forecourt of heaven").
- ^ This mosaic measures 12 feet (3.7 m) by 15 feet (4.6 m).
- ^ Also called "The Glory of the Angels".
- ^ The ceiling of the dome is decorated in mosaic, a notable feature being a frieze containing a large number of medallions.
- ^ This is the hidden mosaic in the church, and one of two mosaics to survive the 1906 earthquake.
- lunettesover the doors are decorated with cherub singers and the remainder of the wall has tapestry mosaic work in a variety of colors.
- ^ The lunettes of the doorways and the walls are decorated with tapestry mosaic work.
- ^ According to Charles Hendrickson, president of the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America, "Any church with more than two organs gets your attention".[107]
- ^ Every organ specializes in a different period or style of music; the organs in Memorial Church create music from the 14th century up to contemporary times.[107]
- ^ The first wedding, of 1902 Stanford graduates William A. and Ethel Rhodes Holt, took place at Memorial Church in February 1903.[29]
Notes
- ^ Nguyen, Ivy; Najarro, Ileana (October 17, 2011). "Jobs honored at MemChu service". The Stanford Daily. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
- ^ a b Gregg, p. 34
- ^ Joncas, p. 16
- ^ a b c d e f "About Memorial Church". Office for Religious Life. Stanford University. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
- ^ a b c d Harvey, p. 3
- ^ a b c d e f g Harvey, p. 7
- ^ a b c Gregg, p. 17
- ^ Gregg, p. 14
- ^ a b c Joncas, p. 27
- ^ a b c d e Barr, Sheldon (September 2002). "Venetian Glass at Stanford University". Magazine Antiques.
- ^ ISBN 0-8118-4835-3.
- ^ Gregg, p. 11
- ^ a b c Hall, p. 21
- ^ a b c d e f g "Venetian Family Donates Historic Watercolors of Church Mosaics" (Press release). Stanford University. March 3, 1992. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Taylor, Joseph A. "Memorial Church History". The Office for Religious Life at Stanford University. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
- ^ Hall, p. 25
- ^ Gregg, pp. 22–23
- ^ a b c d Gregg, p. 22
- ^ Gregg, pp. 10–11
- ^ a b "Stanford Memorial Church Dedicated Yesterday with Impressive Ceremonies". San Francisco Chronicle. January 26, 1903.
- ^ Oberhausen, p. 4
- ^ "Obituary Jane Stanford". The New York Times. March 25, 1905. p. 9.
- ^ a b c d Hall, p. 22
- ^ Gregg, p. 24
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "Repair of Monuments 4: Memorial Church". Quake '06 Walking Tour. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
- ^ Gregg, pp. 25, 28
- ^ a b c Gregg, p. 25
- ^ Palmer, Barbara (July 13, 2001). "His Ph.D. Beckoning, Clock Tower Caretaker Winding Down His Volunteer Duties". Stanford Report. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f Gregg, p. 29
- ^ Junkerman, Charles (Fall 2010). "A Biography of Stanford Sandstone: From Greystone Quarry to Stone River" (PDF). Sandstone & Tile. 34 (3): 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 22, 2013. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e Gregg, p. 26
- ^ a b c Gregg, p. 30
- ^ a b c d Kreysler, William. "In Defiance of Gravity: The Restoration of Stanford's Angels". Flash Point. 6 (2).
- ^ Gregg, pp. 30–31
- ^ Gregg, pp. 38–39
- ^ a b Gregg, p. 31
- ^ a b Harvey, pp. 3–4
- ISBN 0-9664249-1-3.
- ^ Harvey, pp. 4–6
- ^ Harvey, p. 6
- Honan, William H. (July 22, 1997). "Harvard Allows Gay Couples to Hold Ceremonies at Its Chapel". The New York Times. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
- ^ Chaung, Angie (October 18, 1993). "A First for Mem Chu". Vol. 204, no. 16. Stanford Daily. p. 1. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
- ^ Samrai, Yasmin (October 26, 2017). "Campaign to make Memorial Church a 'sanctuary church' meets obstacles". The Stanford Daily. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
- ^ a b Elliott, Orrin Leslie (1937). Stanford University: The First Twenty-five Years. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 140.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Guide to the Stanford University, Memorial Church, Records". Online Archive of California. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
- ISBN 0-8047-4793-8.
- ^ a b Hartwig, Daniel. "Guide to the Rev. David Charles Gardner Collection". Stanford University Libraries, Department of Special Collections and University Archives. Online Archives of California. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
- ^ Grossman, Taylor (June 7, 2012). "Steinbeck at Stanford". The Stanford Daily. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
- ^ Mirrielees, Edith (1959). Stanford: The Story of a University. New York: Putnam. pp. 111, 210–212.
- ^ a b c Bolling, Landrum (Winter 1995). "D. Elton Trueblood: 1900 to 1994". Way Net.org. Erlhamite Magazine. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
- ISBN 0-914850-86-5.
- ^ "Minto Given Chaplaincy" (PDF). Stanford Daily. September 26, 1950. p. 4. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
- ^ a b Peña, Michael (February 28, 2007). "B. Davie Napier, Dean of Stanford Chapel During Turbulent 1960s, Dead at 91". Stanford News Service. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
- ^ a b Palmer, Barbara (September 7, 2001). "Activist Theologian Robert McAfee Brown Dead at 81". Stanford Report. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
- ^ Gemmet, Andrea (June 16, 2004). "Going By the Book: Woodside Village Church Pastor Retires, Returns to Intellectual Pursuits". The Almanac. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
- ^ "Thomas Ambrogi". Claremont Courier. Claremont, Calif. October 9, 2015. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
- ^ Ray, Elaine (October 12, 2012). "Campus celebrates the life of former President Richard Lyman". Stanford Report. Stanford, Calif. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
- ^ "Gregg, Robert C. | Stanford Historical Society". historicalsociety.stanford.edu. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
- ^ "Interim Dean for Religious Life Sees More Values in Questions Than Answers". Stanford Report. February 23, 2000. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
- ^ a b c Day, Nancy (July–August 2001). "Cut from a Different Cloth". Stanford Magazine. Archived from the original on April 2, 2012. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
- ^ Hayward, Brad (July 22, 2014). "Dean of Grace Cathedral to become Stanford dean for religious life". Stanford Report. Stanford, Calif. Archived from the original on September 11, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
- ^ University, Stanford (October 1, 2018). "Tiffany Steinwert to become Stanford Dean for Religious Life". Stanford News. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
- ^ "Staff". Stanford University. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
- ^ a b Strasser, Teresa (May 31, 1996). "Alameda Rabbi to be Stanford's First Jewish Chaplain". The Jewish News of Northern California. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
- ^ "Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann". Stanford Office for Religious Life. Stanford University. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
- ^ "The Rev. Joanne Sanders". Stanford Office for Religious Life. Stanford University. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
- ^ a b Chesley, Kate (June 17, 2017). "New associate dean for religious life named". Stanford News. Stanford University. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g Trevino, Laramie (November 10, 1999). "Staff Profile: Morgan on Organ". Stanford News Service. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
- ^ "Dr. Robert Huw Morgan". The Office for Religious Life at Stanford University. Stanford University. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
- ^ "Murder at Memorial Church remains unsolved 40 years later". The Stanford Daily. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
- ^ Turner, p. 4
- ^ a b Gregg, p. 36
- ^ a b c d e f Oberhausen, p. 3
- ^ Turner, p. 2
- ^ a b c d e f g Joncas, p. 28
- ^ a b Hall, p. 23
- ^ Hall, p. 39
- ^ a b c d Palmer, Barbara (February 23, 2004). "Mosaic Exhibit Shows Rejected Design for Memorial Church". Stanford Report. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
- ^ Hall, p. 40
- ^ "Santa Clara County – List of Stone Quarries, Etc". Stone Quarries and Beyond. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
- ^ Gregg, pp. 36–37
- ^ a b c d e f g Hall, p. 17
- ^ a b Gregg, p. 57
- ^ Gregg, p. 23
- ^ "Memorial Church Quatrefoils". Office for Religious Life. Stanford University. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
- ^ a b c d Hall, p. 35
- ^ a b Gregg, p. 38
- ^ Gregg, p. 39
- ^ Gregg, pp. 53, 57
- ^ Gregg, p. 53
- ^ a b Gregg, p. 50
- ^ Gregg, p. 46
- ^ Gregg, p. 58
- ^ Gregg, pp. 42, 45
- ^ Gregg, p. 60
- ^ Gregg, p. 21
- ^ Gregg, p. 62
- ^ a b Gregg, p. 37
- ^ a b Gregg, p. 18
- ^ Hall, p. 19
- ^ a b Gregg, p. 52
- ^ Hall, p. 30
- ^ Hall, p. 32
- ^ Gregg, p. 61
- ^ Gregg, pp. 37, 52
- ^ Gregg, pp. 42–43
- ^ a b c d e Treviño, Laramie (November 7, 2003). "Unique organs to come alive at Stanford celebration". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
- ^ Gregg, p. 8
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Memorial Church Organs". The Office for Religious Life at Stanford University. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wallace, Rebecca (June 5, 2009). "Video: 'A Fascinating Machine'". Palo Alto Weekly. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
- ^ a b Gregg, p. 9
- ^ Gregg, p. 10
- ^ "Weddings". Office for Religious Life. Stanford University. Retrieved March 4, 2018.
- ^ "Memorial services". Office for Religious Life. Stanford University. Retrieved March 4, 2018.
- ^ "Sunday Mass". Catholic Community at Stanford. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
- ^ "Stanford University: Memorial Church" (PDF). The Office for Religious Life. Stanford University. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 8, 2019. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
Bibliography
- Gregg, Robert C., Karen Bartholowmew, & Lesley Bone (1995). Stanford Memorial Church: Glory of Angels. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Alumni Association. ISBN 0-916318-54-0
- Hall, Willis Lincoln (1917). Stanford Memorial Church: The Mosaics, the Windows, the Inscriptions. Palo Alto, Calif.: Times Publishing Co.
- Harvey, Van (Spring/Summer 1998). "Religious Studies at Stanford: An Historical Sketch". In Sandstone & Tile, Vol. 22, Nos. 2 and 3, pp. 3–10.
- Joncas, Richard, David J. Neuman, and Paul V. Turner (2006). The Campus Guide: Stanford University. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 1-56898-538-X
- Turner, Paul V., "The Stanford Campus: Its Place in History", pp. 2–7.
- Joncas, Richard, "Part 1: The Stanford Farm and Other Early Buildings", pp. 14–19.
- Joncas, Richard, "Part 2: The Original Campus, 1886–1906", pp. 20–53.
- Oberhausen, Judy (Spring 2005). "Stanford Memorial Church: A Late Victorian Jewel". In The Pre-Raphaelite Society Newsletter of the United States, No. 10, pp. 3–4.
External links
- Office for Religious Life at Stanford University
- Stanford University Memorial Church Facebook page
- Stanford University Office for Religious Life About Memorial Church
- Photograph of the Stanford Memorial Church after 1906 San Francisco earthquake from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections