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Ralph Adams Cram: The Endurance of the Gothic

SARA VOLF

Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942) was an influential American polemicist, writer, and architect who championed the Gothic style during early twentieth century. He advocated for the Gothic to be America’s primary architectural style, believing that it was flexible enough to fit the contemporary American world while also promoting spirituality and nostalgia for a monastic society. His travels to Europe allowed him to witness at first hand the crumbling abbeys of England and the spiritual effects of cathedrals in Italy, ultimately prompting his conversion from the Episcopalian to the Anglo-Catholic faith. This new spirituality motivated his work upon his return to America, where he set up an architectural firm with Charles Francis Wentworth and Bertram Goodhue. The men worked together to create buildings, but while his partners designed in various styles, Cram focused on ecclesiastical Gothic architecture, which he felt was “the trumpet blast of an awakening world” that would signify the triumph of Christianity over heresy and paganism. His belief was that the Gothic would produce beautiful settings that would foster learning, religion, and a monastic lifestyle. His vehement Christian beliefs set him apart from his peers, who typically designed from a secular perspective. Throughout his life, Cram was liked and disliked, criticized and praised, and went in and out of favour. As his beloved Gothic style began to lose popularity in the 1930s, so did Cram. His last years were lived in isolation, away from other architects who sought to promote modernism rather than medievalism.

 

Three examples of Cram’s work show that he was interested in the enduring value and permanence of the Gothic style. His ideas appear first in his pre-war publication, Church Building (1901), which examined churches of all sizes and proposed guidelines for their decoration. Cram elaborated upon his theories in a book written during World War I entitled The Substance of Gothic (1917), in which he discussed the rise and fall of the Gothic in the medieval era. The third example is a case study of one of his celebrated post-war commissions, the chapel at Princeton University (1928).

 

In Church Building, Cram was adamant about building churches out of stone, owing to that material’s lasting value; the house of God should be made to endure time. He also felt that a parish should “build a little now, and build it right, instead of trying to build a great deal, and as a result building it meanly” (p. 43). Building it “right” meant that it would be built with decent materials such as seam-faced granite, limestone, and sandstone, and that time would be taken to build the church properly, making it a more permanent structure. Never should wood be used to build a church because it is not a permanent, decent, or honest material. Decoration within the church should be modest and simple rather than grand and opulent, and all decoration should lead to the altar, the most holy place in the church. The altar should be made of a simple stone in order to endure wars and centuries.

 

The Substance of Gothic was written during World War I when the original Gothic cathedrals in Europe were being destroyed. Cram spoke of a “constant process of change” (p. v), suggesting that his own person, ideals, and life had changed since he wrote Church Building. The war devastation in Europe caused Cram to call nostalgically for the rebuilding of churches and cathedrals in order for the Gothic style and memory to live on in modern society. An important difference between this text and Church Building is that in the latter, Cram was concerned with how a church should be built and the best materials and plans to use, whereas The Substance of Gothic became more concerned with the permanence and longevity of Gothic buildings. As he wrote this text during the war, Cram saw that modern conflict was capable of destroying “beautiful” buildings, and he became anxious about the destruction of the few remaining Gothic buildings in Europe.

 

The University Chapel at Princeton offers an interesting case study to examine the degree to which Cram followed his own ideals after the war. By redesigning the campus in the Collegiate Gothic style, Cram borrowed from Oxford and Cambridge Universities. As surviving examples of medieval architecture, they were perfect symbols of endurance to be used in America. Cram designed the chapel by incorporating medieval and modern techniques; for example, he laid the foundation in concrete, the masonry was load-bearing, and the building had self-supporting vaults. He also panelled the chancel in oak, requiring one hundred woodcarvers and a year’s labour. This evokes Cram’s call for architects to build right and in good materials. The university was able to provide Cram with a large budget for the project. Thus, unlike a city church or cathedral, the parish did not have to raise money slowly to build it. The chapel at Princeton could be built immediately and properly without relying on the parishioners to supply the budget. The Collegiate Gothic style employed at Princeton is shared by many other North American university campuses, including that of our own institution, The University of Western Ontario.

 

Cram is an intriguing figure of the early twentieth century who wove the medieval into the modern fabric of America. He worked tirelessly until his last breath to advocate for the Gothic style and a monastic way of life. Cram imported a taste of medieval Europe to North America, working to make cities and campuses that would inspire those who came in contact with them. Cram offered America the gift of an imagined Middle Ages which has endured the test of time through his architectural feats, reminding the country of its ties to England and to Europe’s rich religious history.

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