Help Preserve our National Treasure
Third Annual Cathedral Family Day on Sunday, March 7
Costumed tour guides | Pipe Organ demonstrations | MN Children’s Museum Art Projects | Science Experiments
The Cathedral of Saint Paul welcomes everyone and especially families to tour this historical landmark, listen as a resident musician plays the massive Skinner Pipe Organ, create your own musical instrument with the Minnesota Children’s Museum and get a souvenir photo taken with “a choir of angels” on Sunday, March 7 from 1-4:30 p.m., located at 239 Selby Avenue, Saint Paul (www.cathedralsaintpaul.org).
“The music of the Cathedral will be special focus this year for Family Day. When music is created in this grand place, it appeals to all the senses,” said the Very Reverend Joseph R. Johnson, Rector of the Cathedral. “Come visit on Family Day and learn how the Great Pipe Organs work and get up close to watch one of our organists create music that fills the Cathedral.”
In addition to pipe organ demonstrations, tour guides will be dressed in period costume and standing at stations throughout the building. Move around to all the stations to hear the stories from the historical characters who played a role in building this great monument on the hill.
"For believers, the Cathedral of St. Paul is a direct link to the origins of Christianity and a reminder of what people of faith can accomplish. For the historical-minded, the Cathedral is a link to the city's pioneer past and to the expansive vision of those first settlers."
Saint Paul Pioneer Press editorial, June 18, 2009
Help Preserve our National Treasure
“There should be no one who, entering the Cathedral is not able to say…‘it is mine.’”
~ Archbishop John Ireland 1838-1918
The danger with something that belongs to everyone is that very few will take responsibility for it. Please be generous in helping to preserve the Cathedral of Saint Paul for centuries to come!
$13 Million
$13 Million still remains to be raised to complete payment on the $30 Million
emergency restoration of the Cathedral’s copper dome and roof in 2000-02.
The work was necessary to preserve this Beaux Arts landmark which is still
the highest point in Saint Paul in more ways than one!
$14 Million
$14 Million is needed to repair the interior damage caused by leaks in the dome and roof before the exterior restoration. Not simply aesthetic, the damage affects the stone as well as the ornamental plasterwork of the interior. The mechanical infrastructure of the Cathedral is also overdue for improvement/replacement.
$2.5 Million
$2.5 Million is needed for the urgent restoration of the
Cathedral’s two historic pipe organs. This will preserve
classic examples of American musical craftsmanship
by Ernest Skinner and include the intended but never
executed casework for the gallery organ to complement
the Rose Window. The world-class musical ensembles
that perform in the annual concert series, as well as the
Cathedral’s liturgical life, require this investment.
Deterioration from age has placed these great pipe
organs in imminent danger of failure.
