Washington National Cathedral and George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate each won $100,000 grants Monday, among 24 sites around the nation’s capital competing for historic preservation funds.
The earthquake-damaged National Cathedral won the most votes from the public over the past three weeks, earning nearly 1.4 million points in the Partners in Preservation program. The National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express announced the winners, awarding $1 million in preservation funds to sites in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.
The contest was great fun among Cathedral volunteers. The only close competitor was Mount Vernon — which received a $100,000 grant also. The two were nip and tuck at the end. But it will cost much more than 100K to inspect the high vaulting, do the repair work there, and remove the netting; the expense of the scaffolding alone will be significant. The netting has been up for almost two years, and it obstructs views of the rose windows, the clerestory windows, and the vaulting itself. We will be happy to see it go.
And how much of the cathedral’s repairs will be paid for by the Episcopal Church? After all, it IS their property, isn’t it?
It’s a magnificent structure. Too bad it conceals the rot in TEC.
#2. The National Cathedral is owned by (well, subject to the Dennis Canon) and operated by the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation. The Cathedral raises its own money, and gets no money from the National Church (“TEC”). I believe the resident congregation pays its assessment to the Diocese of Washington.
Fine, then [b]they[/b] should pay the bill.