Taylor Gurney

The Cathedral of the Madeleine

I decided to write my history report on the beautiful Catholic building The Cathedral of
the Madeleine. I have been to this build in previous years with field trips for school and my own
interest to see the architectural beauty of the building, from the stone working to the intricate
designs of the stain glass windows. My visit to this Utah historical monument was very pleasant.
The people who do the tours and show you around are very kind and are very informative of the
history behind such a beautiful building. They were open to all different types of questions and
seemed to have answers to all the questions and would explain in great detail the things we were
looking at.
The construction of The Cathedral of the Madeleine started in 1900 and finished in nine
short years in 1909. On August 15 1909, the cathedral was dedicated and blessed by a priest by
the name of Cardinal James Gibbons. The main architects
that designed and built this building were Carl M.
Newhausen and Bernard O. Mecklenburg. The cathedral
combines two different architect styles that are very
famous in catholic architectural history. The first style is
Romanesque; this is what the whole outer exterior of the
cathedral consists of more dark a lot of shadows and
kinda cold. The second architect style is a Gothic, this is
what the interior of the build consists of very bright and
warm and welcoming. The piece of property that the
cathedral was built on was purchased in 1890 for $35,000. The cost of the cathedral construction
itself was $344,000.
The exterior of the cathedral has for the most part remains practically the same today as
when it was in 1909, besides for a few things such as the addition of a tympanum that sits over
the main entrance way and they also constructed a double flight of steps that could commutate

more people leading in and out of the main entrance. The few renovations on the outer of the
cathedral took place between the years 1975 and 1980. The leadership of the church during the
renovations was The Most Reverend Joseph Lennox Federal, sixth bishop of Salt Lake City. The
renovations of the cathedral also had them putting a new copper roof on the building. This was
necessary so that porous sandstone from the Utah Mountains would slow further erosion, and
also restoring the gargoyles which is personally my favorite thing on the building.
The interior of the cathedral was mainly created and over saw by the leader of The Right
Reverend Joseph S. Glass, who later became the Bishop of Salt Lake in 1915. Reverend Joseph
S. Glass had a love and a very strong passion to artistic ideas and views, Bishop Glass wanted
the interior of the build to match the beauty of the exterior of the building, so he hired John
Theodore Comes, who was one of the top architects in America at the time, to take on the project
of beautification and remodelling of the plain boring interior. John Theodore Comes started to
remodel the interior in 1917; his main inspiration
came from the Spanish Gothic architectural design of
the late Middle Ages. The large and very color full
and beautiful murals were added. The beautiful and
delicate shrine of St. Mary Magdalen, which is
something I feel everyone needs to go see and many
other shrines were build because of John Comes
renovation to the building.
In 1990s there was a reverend by the name William K. Weigand, in office he started to
notice that there was a demand and need for a restoration of the old interior. Over time the
cathedral had seen better days because of dirt and pollution over the time when John Comes
redesigned the interior. Beyer Blinder Belle was a interior designer from New York he would be
the one to take on the massive renovation that was about to take place. This renovation and
restoration of the cathedrals would be the largest and intense renovation that this cathedral has
ever seen in its history. The renovation took place between the years of 1991 and 1993 at a large
sum of $9.7 million and every inch of the interior was restored.

This included renovation brought the cathedral up to date with the Catholic Church and
there new reforms Second Vatican Council in 1962 through 1965. So the building got a new alter
in a better location that was more in the midst of the congregation. They also received a new
bishops chair, and a Blessed Sacrament chapel, and adding a larger baptismal font. Also with
the new technology they had a seismic retrofit to strengthen the building against earthquakes,
they also rebuilt the lower level of the cathedral, which added Scanlan Hall, which is a new
annex entrance to the cathedral, and the build of a new cathedral plaza. The fully restored
building was formally rededicated by the Catholic Church on February 21, 1993. The cathedral is
now recognised by the Utah Register of Historic Sites and the National Register of Historic
Places.
Work Citied: Pamphlets that are handed out in the main lobby of the cathedral talking
about the history and renovation of the building.