Introduction

The minutes of the Trinity Cathedral Vestry Committee for January 18, 1938 record the formal action taken by the Vestry, which authorized Dean Chester B. Emerson to make an agreement with Burnham to provide windows for the Cathedral:

The Dean [Chester B. Emerson] reported that he considers Wilbur H. Burnham of Boston, Mass. to be the most competent person to make the drawings for and install art glass memorial windows and that Mr. Burnham had made a fair estimate of the cost (approximately $600 for each main floor window) if he is given the right to install several of them. The Dean announced he had several offers of donations to pay for memorial windows and wished to be in a position to proceed. It was moved, seconded and unanimously carried that the Dean be authorized to have Mr. Burnham prepare drawings for such number of memorial windows as he has donors to cover and that upon approval of the drawings by the Building Committee and the deposit with the Treasurer by the donor of an amount necessary to cover the cost of the window desired by the donor, the Dean be authorized to make the necessary agreement with Mr. Burnham to install the window (Vestry Committee Minutes, 1938).

Dean Chester B. Emerson started as canon residentiary at Trinity Cathedral on January 1, 1933. Because he was a Congregational minister, Emerson, who came from Detroit, had to use his time as canon to prepare for ordination as an Episcopal priest. Later that year, after his priestly ordination, he became dean of the cathedral, and it was in this capacity that he commissioned Wilbur Burnham to create the nave aisle windows. Emerson was popular in Cleveland. His sermons and discussions before civic groups on topics of the day kept his name in the Cleveland newspapers. He was, for instance, not shy about commenting about King Edward VIII and Mrs. Wallace Simpson. His pulpit presence was such that his sermons and the accomplished Trinity choir attracted a radio station that broadcast Trinity’s Sunday services (Pierce, 1967).

In planning for the medieval style of window for which the Burnham Studios were renowned, Dean Emerson took advantage of Trinity’s Perpendicular Gothic architecture copied from the churches and cathedrals of medieval England. Trinity Cathedral’s earlier incarnation was as a church on Superior Avenue, across the street from the present main Cleveland library. When the diocese of Ohio split into two in 1875 (the Diocese of Ohio with a bishop in Cleveland and the Diocese of Southern Ohio with a bishop in Cincinnati), the bishop of Ohio moved to Cleveland from Gambier. The congregation soon began to make plans to relocate and build a cathedral. Land was purchased on East 22nd Street and Euclid Avenue (Wells, 1987). A Romanesque style parish hall was completed in 1897, and after a prolonged period of discussion between the architect, Charles Schweinfurth, and the bishop and vestrymen, Schweinfurth’s plans for a Romanesque cathedral were scuttled in favor of the English Perpendicular Gothic. Building started in 1901, and the cathedral was consecrated in 1907 (Wells, unpublished manuscript, 1994). Emerson’s commission to Burnham can be seen as part of several decades of almost constant work on aspects of the cathedral’s exterior and interior.

The windows were installed by December 1939. The Cleveland Plain Dealer (December 13, 1939) reported that the arrangement of the windows to give a consecutive picture of events in the life of Christ was conceived by Dean Emerson. The article also stated that a total of twenty-two new windows, including the ones by the Burnham Studios, would be dedicated by Emerson on Sunday, December 17. On December 18, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on the dedication service, which used the 54th chapter of Isaiah (“I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and I will make thy windows of agates...”) as a theme. Dean Emerson moved from window to window, pronouncing the words of dedication "to the glory of God and Christ" with supplementary readings from the Bible and excerpts from the Book of Common Prayer. He was preceded by a crucifer and acolytes and was accompanied by two canons of the cathedral, his right hand raised toward the windows.

The pews were jammed. Several persons to whom windows were dedicated were present, as were many relatives of the people so honored. Emerson was appreciative, saying: "We are happy to have made so much progress in the glazing of the cathedral. We are grateful to all those whose gifts have made this possible. We are gratified that so many donors and their families can be present ... ." They were visually rewarded. The newspaper reported that "A bright sun outside poured its rays through the richly colored panes, and the light, when mingled with that radiating from the glowing lanterns of the cathedral, gave its interior the brilliance of a casket of jewels (The Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 18, 1939).”

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