Stanford Memorial Church - Stanford, California - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

Construction of the Stanford Memorial Church began in 1899 and was completed in 1903. "Jane Stanford built the church as a memorial to her husband, Leland. The Stanfords, who were religious, but not committed to any denomination, decreed that the church was to be open to all. Adopting such a philosophy, they felt, would permit the church to serve the broadest spiritual needs of the university community."
Excerpted from About Memorial Church

According to the San Francisco Guide,

The STANFORD MEMORIAL CHURCH faces the cloistered inner Quadrangle from the south. Set in the pavement before the entrance are a series of brass tablets, a new one being added for each graduating class. Built by Mrs. Leland Stanford as a memorial to her husband, the church was almost completely ruined by the 1906 earthquake. Rebuilt without its former central tower, the structure is less graceful than the original. The mosaics of the facade, like those destroyed, were made in Venice; they largely follow the original design. In the spandrils above the triple doorways with their Romanesque piers, and carved arches, the mosaics represent figures symbolic of the theological virtues. A large round-headed window fills the central space above the doorways; at each side are three smaller windows. The space above and between this fenestration up to the apex the roof is filled with a huge mosaic, The Sermon on the Mount, against a background of gold.

The mosaic decoration in the vestibule consists of colored medallions in the form of Chi Rho and the Alphaq and Omega against a gold background.The same buff sandstone used for the exterior has been used for the interior walls and piers. The interior is a nave of four byways with narrow aisles, each with a single large round-headed window. The clerestory has two small windows to each bay. The transepts have apsidal endings and balconies, each with a semicircular carved balustrade supported by heavy Romanesque piers. For r the crossing, with its four massive arches, seven white marble steps rise the entire width to a shallow choir. The sanctuary rail is of marble. The apse is semicircular with fourteen small recessed arches faced with goldmosaicand three large windows in the upper story. Above the marble alter is a reproduction in mosaic ofCosimo Rosselli’s The Last Supper. The mosaics which cover the upper walls of the entire interior depict Biblical scenes and individual figures of prophets,patriarchs and saints. The work lost in the earthquake was replaced from the studios of Antonio Salivate in Venice, where the original designs had fortunately been preserved.

The Memorial Church can be seen in Google Street View.

Book: San Francisco Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 473 Year Originally Published: 1940

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