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Stanford Memorial Church
Stanford Memorial Church at night
Religion
Year consecrated	1903
Location
Location	Stanford University, Stanford, California
Architecture
Architect(s)	Charles A. Coolidge, Clinton E. Day, Charles E. Hodges
Type	Church
Style	Romanesque, Byzantine, pre-Raphaelite
General contractor	John McGilvray
Groundbreaking	1899
Completed	1903
Website
Office for Religious Life

Stanford Memorial Church (also known as MemChu) is located at the center of the Stanford University campus in Stanford, California. It was built during the American Renaissance by Jane Stanford as a memorial to her husband Leland. Designed by architect Charles A. Coolidge, a protegé of Henry Hobson Richardson, the church has been called "the University's architectural crown jewel".

Designs for the church were submitted to Jane Stanford and the university trustees in 1898, and it was dedicated in 1903. The building is Romanesque in form and Byzantine in its details, inspired by churches in the region of Venice and, especially, Ravennay. Its stained glass windows and extensive mosaics are based on religious paintings the Stanfords admired in Europe. The church has four pipe organs, which allow musicians to produce many styles of organ music. Stanford Memorial Church has withstood two major earthquakes, in 1906 and 1989, and was extensively renovated after each.

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. 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 "completely secular university" at the middle of the century to "the renaissance of faith and learning at Stanford" in the 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 end of the mile-long axis of Stanford University, visible from a distance; the main vista begins at the main entrance, continues to Palm Drive, traverses "the Oval" (a large oval lawn), enters the Main Quad (the core of the university), and finally crosses Memorial Court and the Inner Quad courtyard. The church was commissioned by Jane Stanford (1828–1905) as a memorial to her husband, Leland Stanford (1824–93). The Stanfords had intended that a church should become "the centerpiece of the university complex". They were deeply religious, and for their day and social standing, "open-minded ecumenicalists", so they included in the university's original charter that a church built on campus should be a "nondenominational—if essentially Protestant—house of worship". They had traveled Europe for many years, visiting churches, museums, and notable buildings and finding inspiration for the architecture of both the university and church. They received their greatest inspiration from Piazza San Marco in Venice.

During one of the Stanfords' European trips they met and befriended Maurizio Camerino, an artist with a reputation for producing high-quality mosaics, who was managing the Antonio Salviati studios in Venice. After Leland Stanford's death in 1893, legal disputes tied up the Stanford estate and prevented the completion of the university for several years. When the disputes were determined in Jane Stanford's favor, she was finally able to put into motion her wish for a church. In 1898, she and the university trustees requested design submissions for the church. Once Stanford Memorial Church was ready for decoration, Jane Stanford visited Camerino, who had taken over the ownership of Salvati and Company in 1890, and commissioned him to produce mosaics for the church. The art contained in the church "greatly occupied" Stanford; as former chaplain Robert C. Gregg put it, "The structure was to be without flaw". Stanford was determined that the quality of the church's workmanship would equal the medieval churches she had admired in Europe.

Groundbreaking for the church was held in 1899. After a delay of almost a year, Stanford Memorial Church was dedicated on January 25, 1903, with "impressive ceremonies". Demonstrating Jane Stanford's goal of ecumenicism, Rabbi Jacob Voorsanger of San Francisco's Congregation Emanu-El read the first Bible lesson. The church's pastor, Heber Newton, gave the sermon. A second service was held later that day, and Charles Gardner, the chaplain, gave the sermon. Stanford Memorial Church's first christening was held between the two services.

Jane Stanford once remarked: "While my whole heart is in the university, my soul is in that church". She died in 1905, and so did not live to see the damage caused by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Her funeral took place in the church, refered to as one of her most important accomplishments and "the truest reflection of her visionary leadership" in March 1905. Demonstrating her belief in ecumenicism, 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.

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. 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. The result was that when the tower swayed in the earthquake, it pushed against the walls and roofs of the nave, transepts and chancel, causing the walls to move and the roof of the nave to be forced towards the gable of the facade. The upper north face of the building was affected by the movement of the nave roof against the gable and fell forward into the Inner Quad courtyard, "its wondrous mosaic was blown out and totally destroyed".

The spire fell into the chancel, bringing down the roof and doing massive damage to the internal fittings. The twelve marble statues of the apostles, which stood in front of the niches surrounding the altar, were damaged and never replaced. The spire was never repaired and the tower was removed and replaced by a simpler structure; however, the clock was saved and eventually placed in another building on campus, the Stanford Clock Tower. The crossing of the church was the only part of the building to remain relatively stable after the quake. and the only mosaics not destroyed in the quake were the four angels that decorated the crossing dome's pendentives.

Repairs of the earthquake damage began immediately. The church building was extensively retrofit, "to assure permanence" in case of further earthquakes. The extent of the damage was such that the church had to be completely rebuilt. It was dismantled stone by stone, which, along with the windows, were labeled and stored. In the rebuilding, stones were anchored to concrete-reinforced walls. The building's crossing received a tiled hipped roof and an oculus, which lit the interior of the church, was added above the renovated dome. The original dome had been decorated with a "a frescoed Victorian interpretation of God's eye—complete with tear—surrounded by cherubs and shooting star". The new dome had a frescoed ceiling decorated with bronze designs as opposed to the gold leaf present before the earthquake. A further structural alteration was that the irregular rose window of the facade was replaced by a more regular round-arched window like the smaller ones flanking it.

The dedication inscription, which had been placed in large letters below the facade mosaic, was replaced by a smaller dedication plaque placed at the lower left of the facade. The mosaics were restored by Camerino, who did not appraise the damage until 1913. He had saved the original drawings in Venice, so he removed and re-fabricated the chancel mosaic, and redesigned the entire exterior mosaic. Camerino also donated mosaics to fill the spaces left by the removal of the dedication inscription. The tile floor was replaced with cork. The Stanford alumni magazine, in early 1917, declared the renovation complete, stating that "the church, for almost the first time since it was begun, is finished".

In 1989 the church was damaged again, in the Loma Prieta earthquake. The integrity of the structure remained, but the crossing structure, the only major part of the building that was not damaged in the 1905 earthquake, buckled and caused several stones in the north and west arches to slip as much as to 2 inches (0.051 m). The four mosaic angels in the pendentives supporting the dome were damaged. An eight-foot mosaic section of an angel's left wing broke off and 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 was carried out.

In this restoration the entire crossing was strengthened by bracing it behind the dome and securing it to the superstructure of the building. The roofs, which had not been replaced since 1913, were rebuilt with plywood diaphragms and 30,000 new red clay tiles were installed. The wing of the damaged angel was restored; 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. The stones from the arches were replaced. During the renovation after the earthquake, a piece of the original mosaic from the vestibule, with its Chi Rho, was found in the foundation and inserted into the Communion Table in the chancel, linking the current building with the pre-1906 church. Other improvements to the church were also made at this time. 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. Stanford Memorial Church was rededicated by chaplain Robert C. Gregg on November 1, 1992.

Influence

Gifted as a preacher as well as a jazz pianist, 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.

Before the 1950s, Stanford "had the reputation of being a completely secular university". Stanford professor Van Harvey refers to this as a "background of aggressive secularism and the almost complete neglect of the academic study of religion". In 1946, Merrimon Cuninggim, a visiting chaplain at Stanford Memorial Church, criticized the "dearth" of religious and spiritual resources available at Stanford for its students and criticized the university's lack of academic courses offered in the study of religions. Cuninggim insisted that the university's administration and trustees were responsible because they had interpreted the non-sectarian clause in Stanford's charter in "a negative and restrictive fashion rather than as enabling the tolerance and the flourishing of many religious faiths on campus".

Cuninggim also charged that Stanford's religious policies were inadequate compared to other prominent US universities. 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. In 1966, however, the 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.

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 US. 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 New Testament Greek and Bible classes. Gardner's successor, D. Elton Trueblood, taught classes about the philosophy of religion. In 1941 Trueblood's efforts to expand the study of religion resulted in the creation of a minor in religion, as well as twenty-one courses offered by him and four faculty members. By 1960, the chaplains of Stanford Memorial Church no longer had to run the program, which had expanded to allow students the option of majoring in the study of religion. By the mid-1960s, the religious studies program at Stanford was enjoying "enormous success".

In the 1960s, the study of religion at Stanford focused not on academics, but on social and ethical issues like race and the Vietnam War. Leading this focus was Stanford Memorial Church chaplain David Napier, who was "a powerful critic of US policy in Vietnam". Napier, along with Stanford professors Michael Novak and Robert McAfee Brown, were the subject of a Time Magazine article in 1966, describing "the renaissance of faith and learning at Stanford". Students crowded into the church to hear anti-war speeches by them, as well as by "notables" such as Linus Pauling and William Sloan Coffin.

In 1993, Stanford became the first major educational institution in the United States to give formal permission allowing same-sex commitment ceremonies at its chapel. The first ceremony, called "vows of commitment", took place on Labor Day, September 6, 1993, and was performed by Associate Dean of the Chapel, Diana Akiyama. Stanford's Memorial Church's dean at the time, Robert Gregg, obtained permission from the university administration and discussed it with his staff before the ceremony was performed.

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, the first and last pastor of Stanford Memorial Church, resigned after four months in 1903 "because he disagreed with Mrs. Stanford on some aspects of church management". According to Stanford biographer Robert W. P. Cutler, "Newton's tenure had been a disappointment to Mrs. Stanford". Newton had been rector of All Souls' Church, New York City (1869–1902). He was a leader in the Social Gospel movement, a supporter of Higher Criticism of the Bible, and sought to unify Christian churches in the United States. David Charles Gardner, who replaced Newton and was the first chaplain of Stanford Memorial Church, served the church from 1903 to 1936. An Episcopal minister, Gardner was known as "the Padre" to his students at Stanford. He was born in England, immigrated to the US when he was twenty-one years old, and attended seminary near San Francisco. Gardner taught courses in Biblical history and literature at Stanford. Edith Mirrielees, a student, professor, and Stanford historian, considered him "a preacher of only indifferent ability" but "a strength to the whole university". According to her he was the prime mover behind the creation of the Stanford Home for Convalescent Children, established in 1919, which eventually became the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

D. Elton Trueblood, a Quaker, was the church's chaplain from 1936 to 1946. Trueblood was also a professor of philosophy of religion at Stanford and wrote 33 books, including one about Abraham Lincoln. Trueblood and his wife hosted monthly Friends meetings in their home. He met weekly with Orthodox Jewish students in the vestry of Stanford Memorial Church. Trueblood left Stanford to go to Earlham College. George J. Hall was the interim chaplain between Trueblood and Robert "Rabb" M. Minto, who, except for a short break in his employment in 1949, worked at Stanford for almost twenty years, from 1947–1965. Ordained in the Church of Scotland, Minto was known for his handwritten marriage certificates. Paul C. Johnston filled in during Minto's break.

Stanford's next two chaplains, B. David Napier (1966–72) and Robert McAfee Brown (1972–73), were among the most politically active chaplains. Napier was an ordained Congregational minister. He was born in China to missionary parents, grew up in the American South, and went to seminary at Yale. He gained fame among Stanford students "for his efforts to relate Scripture to the turbulent political times of the late 1960s". Napier was a "charismatic biblical scholar  ... a powerful critic of US policy in Vietnam". Napier was also a "gifted" preacher and jazz pianist. Brown, the author of 29 books, became "an international leader in civil rights, ecumenical and social justice causes". He also protested US involvement in Vietnam and taught religion and ethics in relation to contemporary life and literature.

Robert Hamerton-Kelly (1972–86), born in South Africa, was a United Methodist minister. He taught religion, classics, and Greek at Stanford. Thomas Ambrogi was the acting dean in 1986. He was a former Jesuit priest who was an elder in the First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, and referred to himself as " a transdenominational Christian with roots in the Catholic tradition". Robert C. Gregg (1987–98), was born in Texas and ordained as an Episcopal minister. He was also Professor of Religious Studies. Kelly Denton-Borhaug (1999–2000), a Lutheran minister, came to Stanford in 1996 as an associate dean.

Staff

The Rev. Scotty McLennan has served as Dean for Religious Life at Stanford since 2001. He is joined by associate deans Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann and The Rev. Joanne Sanders to form a multi-faith team. The deans oversee educational programs and serve on administrative committees on campus.

McLennan, who is a Unitarian Universalist minister, was "an activist neighborhood lawyer" in Boston before becoming a university chaplain, first at Tufts University. Garry Trudeau, who was McLennan's roommate when they were students at Yale University, based his Doonesbury character, the Rev. Scot Sloan, in part on McLennan.

Rabbi Karlin-Neumann is Stanford's first Jewish associate dean of religious life. Before the university hired her in 1996, the chaplaincy position was called "Dean of Memorial Church"; in order to accommodate Karlin-Neumann, the position's name was changed to "Dean of Religious Life at Stanford". Before coming to Stanford, Karlin-Neumann had been a Hillel director and chaplain at UCLA and Claremont College, a rabbi in Alameda, California, and was active in Reform Judaism. She has taught courses in Jewish feminism, rabbinical ethics, education, and social justice. She refers to her role at Stanford as "Mem Chu and a Jew, too".

Sanders, an Episcopal priest, has worked at Stanford since 2001. She has degrees in theology, sports administration and physical education. Her career has focused on the connection between body, mind, and spirit. She serves as liturgical officer for Memorial Church, is responsible for coordinating and facilitating the religious services at the church, and is active in the athletic community on campus. She is also a member of Stanford's Women's Community Center.

Robert Huw Morgan has been Stanford Memorial Church's organist since 1999. He is a lecturer in organ at the Stanford University School of Music. Morgan performs at up to thirty services, mostly weddings, each month at the church. Mary Gallagher is the current wedding coordinator at Stanford Memorial Church.

Architecture

Stanford Memorial Church was built during the American Renaissance period, a time of architectural eclecticism, so elements of styles from different eras are synthesized in its design. The architectural style of Stanford Memorial Church has been referred to as "a stunning example of late Victorian ecclesiastical art and architecture with echoes of Pre-Raphaelitism". As it stands today, having been altered after earthquake damage, Stanford Memorial Church has the plan and structure of a large Romanesque church while the extensive use of mosaic and the foliate forms of the stone carvings reflect Byzantine styles seen by Jane Stanford on her visits to the churches of Constantinople and St Mark's Basilica, Venice.

The architect was Charles A. Coolidge, a protegé of Henry Hobson Richardson, and who developed the massing of Richardson's Trinity Church in Boston, (1876). Like Trinity Church, Memorial Church originally had a large central tower with turrets and a twelve-sided spire, but this was lost as a result of the 1906 earthquake. The church's blueprints were prepared by Clinton E. Day of San Francisco, and Charles E. Hodges was the supervising architect for the project. Jane Stanford hired builder John McGilvray, who was responsible for constructing the St. Francis Hotel, the City Hall complex in San Francisco, and much of Stanford University, for the actual construction of Stanford Memorial Church.

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". On her direction, Coolidge imitated the "glorious color" of the European cathedrals, especially those in Italy. Although the iconography in the church is Christian, Stanford was a "late Victorian progressive", and chose the art displayed less for their religious themes and more for their "humanitarian ethics". She requested that the designs include women in the church's images, "to show the uplifting influence of religion for women"; there are many women depicted in the 24 mosaics throughout the church. Art historian Judy Oberhausen reports that Stanford used compendiums 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.

Plan

The church is a cruciform structure measuring 190 feet (58 m) long and 150 feet (46 m) wide, which originally included the clock and bell tower with an 80-foot (24 m) spire. The facade faces the Inner Quad, and is connected to other buildings by arcades which extend laterally. The entry is through a narthex or porch extending across the building. The nave has a single aisle on either side, separated by an arcade with a clerestory above it. The crossing is formed by a structure of square plan which once supported the central tower. Over it is a shallow dome supported on pendentives and rising to a skylit oculus. High semicircular Romanesque arches separate the crossing from the nave, transepts and chancel. The chancel and transepts are apsidal. There are deep galleries with swept balustraded fronts in the transepts and an organ gallery above the narthex against the nave's west wall. The sanctuary, in the chancel, is raised and approached by steps.

Exterior

The chief building material of the church is limestone. It is roofed with terracotta tiles of the Italian imbrex and tegula form. The nave, chancel and transepts appear to project from the robust square central structure which is now roofed with tiles and has a small skylight above its centre.

The ornate facade is divided into two zones with a gable roof of low pitch surmounted by a Celtic cross. In the lower zone, there are three arched entrances; the central one is slightly larger than the others. The surrounding stonework is intricately carved with stylized flora, twisted-cable moldings, and bosses of sculpted cherubim, a motif which occurs in different media throughout the church. In the spandrels are mosaic depictions of the Biblical concepts of Faith, Hope, and Love intertwined in a vine representing the "tree of life".

In the upper zone of the facade, surrounded by more elaborate stonework, is a large central window, with groups of three smaller windows on each side. The original central window was a quatrefoil-shaped rose window, but after the 1906 earthquake, it was replaced by a "classical round-head window that more grandly restates the smaller flanking, articulated openings" and that corresponded with the mission-style architecture of the Quad. Beneath the windows are inlaid panels of colored marble.

The gable and surrounding surfaces contain the church's largest mosaic, created by Paoletti, and recreated by him after the 1906 earthquake. 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 US. It depicts a group of men, women and children, 47 in all, surrounding and "paying close heed" to Christ, the mosaic's central figure. Paoletti included a landscape with "waving palms and a gleaming sky" behind Christ.

After Jane Stanford's death, the mosaic popularly gained the name "The Sermon on the Mount", although Stanford University historian Richard Joncas insists that the mosaic does not depict the scene as described in the Gospel of Matthew and has referred to it simply as "an indefinite biblical scene". In the Stanford University press release about the gift of watercolour cartoons for the church's mosaics, Paoletti's design for the facade is described as "Christ Welcoming the Righteous into the Kingdom of God", based on Matthew 25:34.

Interior

The nave is entered through a narthex above which is an organ gallery. The nave is arcaded and has a single aisle on each side. The open wooden roof is constructed with tied hammer beams, which can be seen radiating in the chancel. The chancel and transepts are apsidal, separated from the broad central space by large richly decorated semi-circular arches on stout columns with deeply carved capitals. The sanctuary within the chancel is raised on steps and decorated with an arcade at the lower level. The chancel is lit by large round-headed windows, while the central space has a small dome with a skylight. The architectural features of the interior are richly carved with formalized foliate ornament, and the walls are adorned with mosaics in the Byzantine manner. The stained-glass windows were crafted by J. and R. Lamb of New York.

The church's interior walls are made of buff sandstone, which emphasizes the lacy carvings in the arches over the entrance and windows, and emphasizes the bright colors in the windows and mosaics. The sandstone came from the Goodrich quarry in San Jose, delivered to Stanford by train, rough-cut in the university Quad, and then installed in the church. The walls' construction was supervised by John D. McGilvray, who also supervised the construction of many other buildings on campus. 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. For example, the following quotations can be found in the church's east transept:

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.

The church's main entrance consists of three bronze scroll doors that bear angels, a repeating motif throughout the church. Jane Stanford had a "Victorian aversion to blank space", so the church's interior is full of mosaics, windows, and other decorations. The doors open up into a vestibule full of mosaics that holds three arches; carvings decorate the arches' pillars and the small stone band above the lower mosaics. There are a variety of designs and motifs here because more than one carver worked on them. The mosaic that adorns the floor here depicts a lamb surrounded by the symbols of the four gospel writers: St. Matthew (the winged angel), St. Mark (the winged lion), St. Luke (the ox), and St. John (the eagle). These symbols also appear in other areas of the church. Another Celtic cross adorns the central wooden door that leads into the nave, and Latin epigraphs have been engraved above the two outer doors.

Above "the dimly-lit cavern of glowing mosaic surfaces ... and vibrant, stained-glass windows" rises the exposed-timber ceiling inspired by Trinity Church. The chandeliers that hang from the ceiling were installed in the church in 1915, and with its gold decorative patterns cast in pot metal, are inspired by the Art Nouveau tradition. On both sides of the nave, stained glass windows, which were inspired by several famous works of arts in Europe, have been placed on the walls that rise from the church's forward sloping floor and in its clerestory above. As Joncas states, "The floor descends toward the crossing, where the space swells into three semicircular aspses, with those on either end having galleries supported by columns".

The chancel is forward of the nave, whereas Hall states, it contains "artistic work of a kind seldom seen anywhere". There is a white marble communion table, which was carved from Carrara marble by L.M. Avenali, in the middle of the chancel. The altar supports a "simple unadorned brass cross that reflects the colors of the mosaics surrounding it." The cross was made by William van Erp and was dedicated to the memory of Jane Stanford in 1948. Directly above the communion table is a dome, which was constructed on a drum, or a cylindrical structure decorated with a painted intertwined leafy pattern attached to four pendentives. Jane Stanford originally designed the dome's golden band to be made of mosaic tiles depicting a variety of symbols, but the church's builders thought it would make the dome too heavy, so the band and its symbols were painted. The dome is surrounded by spandrels decorated with mosaics of four angels measuring 42 feet (13 m) from wing tip to wing tip, rising from clouds and done in the trompe-l'oeil style. The angels survived the 1906 earthquake, but the angel looking downward was severely damaged during the 1989 earthquake because an 8-foot section of its left wing fell 70 feet (21 m).

A brass lectern in the shape of an angel holding a book, which Jane Stanford bought in Europe and dedicated to her husband on the anniversary of his birth in 1902, stands on the right side of the chancel. Behind the communion table, in the church's apse, contains a raised floor originally used for commencement ceremonies, as well as a mosaic reproduction of Roselli's "Last Supper", and to its right are golden mosaic niches. The niches hold candles that originally held statues of the twelve apostles, but they were destroyed in 1906 and were never replaced. According to local legend, the winged angels 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.

There are three stained glass windows in the apse depicting the nativity, crucifixion, and ascension of Christ. These windows separate four sections of mosaics that depict an angelic choir. Four large mosaics of prophets and Jewish kings, surrounded by further angelic representations in mosaic, have been placed above these windows. More windows and mosaics abound in the transepts, clerestory, and choir loft at the northern end of the church. A series of mosaics in the upper transepts depict Christian saints; on Jane Stanford's direction, they alternate male and female. The arches, balcony rails, and pillars throughout the church have relief carvings created by a team of 10 men working two years from scaffolding. For example, 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. She decorated the chapel's altar by using Salvatti's original mosaics, which had been stored since the church's reconstruction following the 1906 earthquake.

Windows

According to architectural historian Willis L. Hall, the church's 20 large stained glass windows "are as much a feature of the church as the mosaics". The windows, designed by Frederick Stymetz Lamb (1863–1928) and fabricated by J&R Lamb Studios, his father's firm in New York City, took three years to complete, and eight months to install at Stanford. Jane Stanford hired Lamb because she felt he was more interested in "the ecclesiastical rather than commercial aspect of the work". The installation of the windows at Stanford Memorial Church was the largest enterprise of its kind at the time, and the project is considered one of the best examples of Lamb's work. Stanford chose the life of Christ for the windows' theme, inspired by the religious paintings by European master painters such as Shields and Doré. Her personal touch is shown in one of the nave windows, which is based on a cartoon by Paoletti and depicts Christ welcoming the soul of a child into Heaven before the eyes of its grieving mother, an allusion to the death of Leland Stanford, Jr., the Stanfords' only child and the university's namesake, who died in 1884 of typhoid shortly before his 16th birthday.

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. 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. 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. There is a cross in the center of this window made of "faceted pieces of glass that are inset like gems", 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: Abraham, Hagar and her child Ishmael, Moses, Pharaoh's Daughter, Joshua, and Deborah. The windows in the east transept depict David, Ruth, Solomon, The Queen of Sheba, Elijah, Esther, Isaiah, Judith, Daniel, and Hannah. In the nave above the west arcade feature saints and virtues: Stephen, Agnes, Peter, Priscilla, John, and Hope. In the west transept are Simeon, Anne, Matthew, Faith, Mark, Charity, Luke, Dorcas, Paul, and Martha. The clerestory above the east and west doors are two windows of angels. Unlike the other windows throughout the church, they do not receive natural light from outside and are artificially illuminated instead.

Mosaics

The mosaic project began in 1900 and took five years to complete. Jane Stanford chose mosaics to decorate her church 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." Their "shimmering quality" were created by different tones of green and gold; the artists that installed the mosaics had over 20,000 shades of colors to choose from. The images cost US$97,000, and were based upon original watercolors created by artist Antonio Paoletti. Jane Stanford worked closely with Paoletti, planning a combination of Old Testament and New Testament scenes that represented men and women equally.

The mosaic adorning the church's chancel is a reproduction of Roselli'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. Unlike other works, which were reproduced frequently, it was the only reproduction of Roselli's fresco at the time. Artisan Lorenzo Zampato was given the task of supervising the in-studio fabrication and final installation at Stanford. 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. Mosaics are "virtually everywhere" inside the church and have been described as "a perfect complement to Frederick Lamb's stained-glass windows".

Organs

Stanford Memorial Church houses four organs, a "situation only a few places in the nation can boast", since most churches only have one. The presence of multiple and 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 organs produce "powerful music"; as organist Robert Huw Morgan states, "The vibrations go right through you. Some of the pitches you can actually feel in your bowels." Morgan also claims that the instruments are "extremely fun to play", and reports that the best place to hear the "full effect" of the church's organs is "down in the church, about halfway down the nave".

Stanford Memorial Church's original organ is still in use. It was built by Murray M. Harris in 1901 and sits in the upstairs galley. In 1915, an echo division with eight ranks of pipes was added. 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.

Morgan, who has said that he "worships" the Fisk-Nanney organ, states that it is "a desperately famous instrument" and that it "rings with 'incredible clarity' and 'dark color'". He also calls it "a fascinating machine" and "the most beautiful instrument I've ever played". The Fisk-Nanney is a four-manual instrument with 73 ranks and almost 4,500 pipes built in 1985 by the C. B. Fisk company. It is named after its designer, Charles Fisk, and for Herbert Nanney, the church's organist for 39 years. The Fisk-Nanny organ originally was commissioned in 1973, when the church received a special endowment. Its completion was delayed for over 25 years due to logistical and financial problems. Its case is made of poplar and the keyboards are fashioned from grenadilla. The naturals and sharps are rosewood capped with bone. Its pipes are composed of various alloys of tin and lead. In order to accommodate the organ's weight, the choir loft had to be rebuilt and reinforced.

The Fisk-Nanney, which Morgan compares to a "Maserati", is able to "reproduce the sound of Baroque music as authentically as possible". It uses a "combination of elements from historic East German, North German, and French organs plus dual temperaments", and is the only organ in the church capable of authentically reproducing nearly all organ music written from the 16th through the 18th centuries. The organ features both French- and German-style reeds and principal choruses. It is equipped with a Brustpositiv division in meantone temperament that offers two split keys per octave (D-sharp/E-flat and G-sharp/A-flat). 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. 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 in 2005. He is giving a series of concerts during the 2009–2010 season to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Fisk-Nanney organ and his 10th year at Stanford by performing every pipe organ composition written by Johann Sebastian Bach, which will take him 18 hours.

The side chapel houses the Katherine Potter-Brinegar organ, a one-manual Renaissance-style instrument built by Paul Fritts and modeled after the work of the 17th-century German organbuilder Esias Compenius. Built in 1995, it "further enhances" the diversity of the church's musical capacity. It has eight stops, of which three are reeds. The majority of its pipework is made of wood. The organ can be moved easily to different locations in the building with the aid of hidden retractable wheels.

The continuo organ built by Martin Pasi of Roy, Washington was acquired in June 2001. It contains three stops. The case and most of its pipes are made of walnut, and the keys are made of English boxwood and ebony.

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. 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". 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. 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. 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".

Stanford Memorial Church was the earliest interdenominational church on the west coast of the US and has remained "among the most prominent". Multi-faith services are held at Stanford Memorial Church, in addition to denominational and non-denominational Christian services. As many as 150 weddings take place in the church each year as well as many memorial services for people affiliated with the university. Members of the university community use it for "quiet, for reflection, and for private devotions". The church also hosts frequent musical performances from Stanford's own choirs and orchestra, as well as visiting groups such as the vocal ensemble Chanticleer. Catholic masses are held in the church several times a week. Offertories at the principal Sunday services are donated to local charitable organizations.

Footnotes

1. The Stanfords built the university to honor their only child, Leland Stanford, Jr., who died in 1884 of typhoid shortly before his sixteenth birthday.
2. Gregg also wrote Glory of Angels, the 1995 book about MemChu.
3. Love is represented by a mother with wings encircling children.
4. For a complete list of the inscriptions, see Hall pp. 39–45.
5. 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.
6. The best time to view these windows is in the early morning.
7. Carlotto's painting was in turn probably inspired by Raphael's painting of the transfiguration of Christ.
8. This figure is the equivalent of almost US$2 million in 2002.
9. Salviati & Company also designed and built eight large mosaics in Stanford's museum and decorated the vestibuile of the university's mausoleum.
10. List taken from Hall, pp. 31–33
11. Commonly known as "The Sermon on the Mount"
12. Forms the Greek letters alpha and omega and Christ's initials (Chi Rho).
13. Cherubs holding tablets with the inscriptions, Domus Dei Locus Orations ("The House of God, the place of prayer") and Domus Dei Aula Coeli ("The House of God, the forecourt of heaven").
14. This mosaic measures 12 feet (3.7 m) by 15 feet (4.6 m).
15. Also called "The Glory of the Angels".
16. The ceiling of the dome is decorated in mosaic, a notable feature being a frieze containing a large number of medallions.
17. This is the hidden mosaic in the church, and one of two mosaics to survive the 1906 earthquake.
18. The lunettes over the doors are decorated with cherub singers and the remainder of the wall has tapestry mosaic work in a variety of colors.
19. The lunettes of the doorways and the walls are decorated with tapestry mosaic work.
20. Morgan makes this comparison to the church's Murray Harris organ, another high-quality instrument he calls a "Rolls Royce".

Notes

1. Gregg, p. 34
2. ^ "Overview". The Office for Religious Life at Stanford University. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
3. ^ "Welcome from the deans". The Office for Religious Life at Stanford University. Retrieved 2008-10-13. Cite error: The named reference "memchu" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
4. ^ Harvey, p. 3
5. ^ Harvey, p. 7
6. ^ Joncas, p. 27
7. ^ Taylor, Joseph A. "History". The Office for Religious Life at Stanford University. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
8. ^ Barr, Sheldon (September 2002). "Venetian glass at Stanford University". Magazine Antiques. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
9. ^ Davis, p. 36
10. Gregg, p. 17
11. ^ Hall, p. 21
12. Gregg, p. 11
13. Gregg, p. 23
14. ^ "Stanford Memorial Church dedicated yesterday with impressive ceremonies". San Francisco Chronicle. 1903-01-26. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
15. Oberhausen, p. 4
16. "Obituary Jane Stanford". New York Times. 1905-03-25. p. 9. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
17. ^ Hall, p. 22
18. Gregg, p. 24
19. ^ "Repair of monuments 4: Memorial Church". Quake '06 Walking Tour. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
20. ^ Gregg, p. 25
21. Palmer, Barbara (2001-07-13). "His Ph.D. beckoning, Clock Tower caretaker winding down his volunteer duties". Stanford Report. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
22. Gregg, pp. 25, 28
23. ^ Gregg, p. 29
24. ^ Gregg, p. 26
25. ^ Gregg, p. 30
26. ^ Kreysler, William. "In defiance of gravity: The restoration of Stanford's angels". Flash Point. 6 (2). Retrieved 2008-10-08.
27. Gregg, pp. 38–39
28. Gregg, p. 31
29. Bartholomew, Karen (2001). A chronology of Stanford University and its founders. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Historical Society. p. 90. ISBN 0-9664-2491-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
30. Harvey, pp. 4–6
31. Harvey, p. 6
32. Honan, William H. (1997-07-22). "Harvard allows gay couples to hold ceremonies at its chapel". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
33. ^ Simon, Mark (1993-10-16). "Unusual ceremony at Stanford - Church's first blessing of homosexual couple". The San Francisco Chronicle. p. A15. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
34. ^ "Guide to the Stanford University. Memorial Church. Records". Online Archive of California. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
35. Cutler, Robert W.P (2003). The mysterious death of Jane Stanford. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. p. 24. ISBN 0-8047-4793-8.
36. Armentrout, Donald S. (February 2000). "Newton, Richard Heber". American National Biography Online. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
37. ^ Hansen, Hazel Dorothy (2008-11-13). "Memorial resolution: David Charles Gardner (1871–1948)" (pdf). Stanford Historical Society. Retrieved 2008-10-13. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
38. Mirrielees, Edith (1959). Stanford: The story of a university. New York: Putnam. pp. 111, 210–212.
39. Trueblood, Elton (1979). The best of Elton Trueblood: An anthology. Kirkwood, Missouri: Impact Books. p. 84. ISBN 0914850865.
40. Bolling, Landrum. "D. Elton Trueblood: 1900 to 1994". Way Net.org. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
41. Newfield, Elsbeth. "773 Dolores Street: 1917 Shingle Style" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-01-09.
42. ^ Peña, Michael (2007-02-28). "B. Davie Napier, dean of Stanford chapel during turbulent 1960s, dead at 91". Stanford News Service. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
43. ^ Palmer, Barbara (2001-09-07). "Activist theologian Robert McAfee Brown dead at 81". Stanford Report. Retrieved 2009-01-12.
44. Gemmet, Andrea (2004-06-16). "Going by the book: Woodside Village Church pastor retires, returns to intellectual pursuits". The Almanac. Retrieved 2009-01-12.
45. Ambrogi, Thomas E. "Leaving church". A Voice from the Desert. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
46. Ray, Elaine (December 5, 1997). "Priestly passions: Dean Robert Gregg talks about what's dear to his heart". Stanford News Service. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
47. Ray, Elaine (2000-06-19). "University chaplain at Tufts named Stanford's dean for religious life". Stanford News Service. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
48. "Interim dean for religious life sees more values in questions than answers". Stanford Report. 2000-02-23. Retrieved 2009-01-19.
49. ^ Day, Nancy (July/August 2001). "Cut from a different cloth". Stanford Magazine. Retrieved 2008-11-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
50. ^ Strasser, Teresa (1996-05-31). "Alameda rabbi to be Stanford's first Jewish chaplain". Jewish News Weekly of Northern California. Retrieved 2008-11-13.
51. "Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann". The Office for Religious Life at Stanford University. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
52. "The Rev. Joanne Sanders". The Office for Religious Life at Stanford University. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
53. ^ Trevino, Laramie (1999-11-10). "Staff profile: Morgan on organ". Stanford News Service. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
54. "About the university organist". The Office for Religious Life at Stanford University. Retrieved 2008-11-15.
55. ^ Gallagher, Mary. "Wedding program at Stanford University" (PDF). The Office for Religious Life at Stanford University. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
56. ^ Gregg, p. 37
57. ^ Oberhausen, p. 3
58. ^ "Venetian family donates historic watercolors of church mosaics" (Press release). Stanford University. 1992-03-03. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
59. Joncas, Neuman and Turner p. 27
60. ^ Joncas, p. 28
61. ^ Hall, p. 23
62. Gregg, p. 36
63. ^ Hall, p. 17
64. Hall p. 35
65. Gregg, p. 22
66. Hall, p. 39
67. Hall, p. 40
68. ^ Gregg, p. 57
69. ^ Gregg, p. 38
70. Gregg, p. 39
71. ^ Gregg, p. 50
72. Gregg, p. 53
73. Gregg, p. 46
74. Gregg, p. 58
75. Gregg, pp. 42–43
76. ^ Hall, p. 35
77. Gregg, p. 60
78. Gregg, p. 21
79. Gregg, p. 22
80. Hall, p. 19
81. ^ Gregg, p. 52
82. Hall, p. 32
83. Gregg, p. 8
84. ^ Wallace, Rebecca (2009-06-05). "Video: 'A fascinating machine'". Palo Alto Weekly. Retrieved 2009-05-08.
85. Cross, Angela Kraft (2004). "January organ crawl" (PDF). SF/AGO Newsletter. Retrieved 2008-11-21. {{cite journal}}: More than one of |work= and |journal= specified (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
86. ^ "Organs". The Office for Religious Life at Stanford University. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
87. ^ Gregg, p. 9
88. Gregg, p. 10
89. "Memorial services". The Office of Religious Life. Retrieved 2009-04-30.
90. Gant, Michael S. (2008-04-28). "Lively Days". Metro Santa Cruz Weekly. Retrieved 2008-11-18.

References

• Davis, Erik and Michael Rauner (2006). The visionary state: A journey through California's spiritual landscape. San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-4835-3
• Gregg, Robert C., Karen Bartholowmew, & Lesley Bone (1995). Stanford Memorial Church: Glory of angels. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Alumni Association. ISBN 0-9163-1854-0
• 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). Stanford University. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 1-5689-8538-X
• 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
• Historic American Buildings Survey

• 1903 architecture
• Buildings and structures in Santa Clara County, California
• Stanford University places
• University and college chapels in the United States
• Pipe organs