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Stanford Report, April 2, 2003

Memorial Church marks centennial


Campus centerpiece endures as Jane Stanford's multifaith vision

BY BARBARA PALMER

Inside a folder of old photographs and historical material about Memorial Church, docent and alumna Susan Christiansen keeps a colored drawing photocopied from a 1903 Berkeley yearbook. The drawing shows a design that Cal students, in the early stages of Big Game rivalry, proposed for a stained glass window in Memorial Church a scarecrow dressed in a Stanford jersey flanked by vultures, surrounded by a border of footballs.

The artwork, however irreverent, makes a point: For the last 100 years, Memorial Church has stood as one of Stanford's most recognizable icons.

Founders Leland and Jane Stanford always intended it to be that way. In 1887, when they staked out the exact site for the university they planned to build in memory of their deceased son, Leland Jr., the Stanfords reserved the center of the Main Quad for a church.

This is what Memorial Church looked like from 1902 until 1906, when a massive earthquake that shook the Bay Area toppled the church’s 80-foot-high tower. The tower’s clock now sits on Lasuen Mall. Photo: University Archives

Jane Stanford later defended the choice against critics who argued that a library, not a church, should properly be the focal point of the university: "I cannot but feel that the education which the students are receiving is secondary, if a religious and spiritual influence is not exerted over them," she said. In 1903, the year the church was dedicated, she spoke of her desire that "all seeking spiritual comfort for the soul may feel in this holy place that they are welcome, and God grant them peace."

On Sunday, April 6, church and university officials and community members will gather to rededicate the church and look back on a history, church officials say, that has both fulfilled and expanded on Jane Stanford's vision.

'An aversion to blank space'

The original plans for the church were drawn up in 1887 by Charles Coolidge and were based loosely on architect H. H. Richardson's Trinity Church in Boston. Leland Stanford died in 1893 and in 1898, the same year that legal issues that had tied up Stanford's estate were resolved, Jane Stanford hired San Francisco architect Clinton Day to modify the plans. Ground was broken for construction in 1899.

Although Jane Stanford fretted over university costs in her letters to the university's first president, David Starr Jordan, she spared no expense or effort in constructing the church, which was dedicated as a memorial to her husband.

Inside and out, the church -- built in the shape of a cross 190 feet long and 150 feet wide -- reflects what art conservator Lesley Bone called Jane Stanford's "Victorian aversion to blank space." Nearly every square inch is ornamented with carved stone, polished wood, glowing stained glass or intricate Venetian glass mosaics.

It was Jane Stanford's idea to add mosaics to the façade and church interior walls, a project that took 12 men two years to complete, using tiles in 20,000 shades of color and real gold leaf. (The church had to be reconstructed after the 1906 earthquake; work continued on the mosaics until 1916. Less serious damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta quake closed the church for three years.)

Ten men worked for two years carving the sandstone arches, borders and pillar capitals; Jane Stanford is said to have carried a parasol that was notched at the end to measure the depth of the carvings. The Romantic-style organ installed in the unfinished church in 1901 had the "swellest front ever put on an instrument of its kind," a 1901 Stanford alumni publication crowed. The organ, which has been expanded over the years and was restored in 1995, has 57 stops and 3,702 pipes.

Jane Stanford commissioned stained glass artist Frederick S. Lamb to create dozens of stained glass windows, most based on popular religious paintings. A window on the west side of the church, Christ in Gethsemane, was based on a painting that "would have been on the cover of every Sunday school book at the time," Christiansen said. What was unusual for the time are the number of female biblical figures that are represented, she said.

Taken together, the church is a confluence of architectural and artistic styles including Romanesque, California Mission, Art Nouveau, Pre-Raphaelite and Byzantine, she said. "Theoretically, it can be explained," said Christiansen, who minored in art when she earned a bachelor's degree at Stanford in 1960. But ultimately, the church is "what Jane Stanford wanted to put together. There's a sense of tranquility and a theme of comfort -- which is a very Victorian one."

'They are all welcome'

Jane Stanford was just as definite in her decrees about what should take place in the church as she was about how the church should look. She told trustees in 1902 that "theological questions, services and observance, upon which the sects differ should not be entered upon" so that members of every church could comfortably worship.

Jane Stanford's "religious perspective was very open and pluralistic for her time," said Scotty McLennan, dean for religious life, in a statement on Mrs. Stanford's vision he delivered in February. "Jane Stanford was unique for her time, in that she did have a vision for inclusiveness," added Joanne Sanders, associate dean for religious life. "She indicated a desire that there be an openness to the church."

In the 1960s, trustees approved sectarian church services, which meant legally overturning an amendment to the Founding Grant. Today, in addition to 150 weddings and more than three dozen concerts conducted each year, the church holds funerals, memorial services, peace and prayer vigils, meditative services including Taize and Compline, a weekly Christian ecumenical public worship service, a Catholic Mass four days a week and special holiday liturgical events. The church also hosts a lecture series by faculty and staff, "What Matters to Me and Why," as well as university convocations.

During his years as dean, "Memorial Church sought to be a place more seriously 'nondenominational' than even the Stanfords wished," said Robert Gregg, professor of religious studies, who was dean for religious life from 1987 to 1999. "The focus extended beyond 'the church' to all religions represented within the university community, and also to those who don't self-identify as religious but wish to engage in discussions about matters intellectual, spiritual and ethical."

During the 1960s, Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling and others spoke out in the church against the Vietnam War. More recently, the church hosted an evening that included a dramatic reading of an anti-war speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- updated to protest the war in Iraq -- and folk singer Joan Baez.

The church's ministry has deepened and widened, observed Betsy Koester, wedding administrator, who estimates she has assisted with 2,500 weddings since 1984. "It's no longer exclusively Christian. We do Hindu weddings, Jewish weddings, Muslim weddings. It has changed over time as the community has changed."

At the church's first dedication, on Jan. 25, 1903, 14 clergy of various faiths -- including 13 Christian ministers and a rabbi -- were in attendance. After Sunday's rededication service, drama lecturer Patricia Ryan, portraying Jane Stanford, will welcome visitors to a "Peace Village" in the Main Quad. The village, created by a Menlo Park organization, is designed to teach children about world religions.

Although the mission of Memorial Church has evolved over the years, it has stayed congruent with Jane Stanford's original hope and intent, Sanders said. "I think the church, being smack in the middle of campus, conveys our need and longing for nurturing the soul and spirit. We hope that people get a sense of a hospitable spirit."