Begun in 1925, the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist is one of the few examples of true Gothic architecture in the U.S. Designed by well known architect Harold Clarence Whitehouse, of the firm of Whitehouse & Price, of Spokane, this cathedral is unique in that it was the only major cathedral to have been completed within the lifetime of the founding bishop. The dedication of the first section of the church was on October 20, 1929, but construction lagged during the Great Depression and World War II. Starting again in 1948, gradually more sections were added. By 1961, the building assumed its present form.
To the north of the cathedral's eastern entrance stands a lovely lychgate, surrounded by beautiful foliage trees and near a stone contemplation pond. To each side of the lychgate are columbariums faced with purple granite.
The lychgate itself rests on four low, square, stone faced pillars and four heavy square wood posts. The steep gable roof is finished on the under side with a Gothic Arch of cedar or fir 1X4 tongue & groove planks. On each side of the lychgate has been placed a low wooden bench. Overall, the lychgate is a relatively simple post-and-beam structure.
While the cathedral has published a short article on the
architecture of the building, it fails to mention the lychgate. To date we have found no mention of its date of construction. Given that the cathedral was not completely finished until 1961, we will hazard a guess that the lychgate appeared sometime in the 1960s. Another, possibly better, guess might be that this was a millennium project, built circa 2000.
