File:American architecture (1892) (14771538661).jpg

Identifier: americanarchitec92schu (find matches)
Title: American architecture
Year: 1892 (1890s)
Authors: Schuyler, Montgomery, 1843-1914
Subjects: Architecture
Publisher: New York, Harper & Brothers
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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t this is nota cathedral-building country that an American cathe-dral seems a violation of the unities in place not lessthan in time—an anatopism as well as an anachronism.It is a reflection calculated to give us pause that evenwhile we were considering what should be the charac-ter of an American cathedral in the city of New York,the Assembly of the State, being in possession of whatwas acclaimed at the time of its opening as the mostmonumental interior in this country, should have de-cided to demolish rather than to restore its most monu-mental feature, and should have been hopelessly vul-garizing it by substituting for its stone-work a systemof iron posts veneered with wood, and of beams en-closing panels of papier-mache, without eliciting anygeneral or effective protest. The very marked increase of interest in the art ofarchitecture in this country within the last few yearshas been accompanied by a corresponding advance inthe practice of that art, but it has scarcely as yet pro-
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AN AMERICAN CATHEDRAL 3q duced any manifestations that can be called monumen-tal. Our monuments, like those of the Romans, arethe works of engineers, and not of architects. In fact,the disproportion in magnitude and in interest betweenthe Roman baths and aqueducts and the Roman tem-ples is exaggerated in the relation between our worksof utility and our works of art. Our engineers standready to span wider openings and to rear loftier struct-ures than were ever bridged or raised before, providedanybody can be convinced that these unprecedentedoperations will pay. The result of their labors, onthe aesthetic side, is fairly summed up in the remarkof a recent European visitor that public works inAmerica are executed without reference to art. But, as Bishop Potter pointed out in the admirableletter in which he promulgated the project of an Ameri-can cathedral, this very prevalence and predominanceof the. utilitarian spirit makes it most desirable thatthere should be a conspicuous counteract

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