John Pershing Assembles the National Committee for Washington Cathedral As It Prepares to Open

Pershing led the American Expeditionary Force in World War I and was considered a mentor by the generation of generals who would lead the Allied forces in World War II. In 1920, the U.S. Congress authorized the President to promote Pershing to General of the Armies, a rank only he held at the time. In 1924 Pershing retired and devoted the rest of the 1920’s and early 1930’s to philanthropy.

George Washington hoped to build for the Federal City "a church for national purposes," and Pierre L’Enfant, who designed Washington, D.C., set aside land (currently occupied by the National Portrait Gallery) for a national religious structure. Not in their lifetimes, nor in the succeeding century, was anything done to advance the project, however. Then in 1893, the Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia was granted a charter from the United States Congress to establish the cathedral and Mount Saint Alban was chosen as the site. Construction started September 29, 1907, with a ceremonial address by President Theodore Roosevelt and the laying of the cornerstone. In 1912, Bethlehem Chapel opened for services in the unfinished cathedral. When construction of the cathedral resumed after a hiatus for World War I, its planners envisioned a grander design than the first schemes.

In 1923, Reverend James Edward Freeman became Bishop of Washington and campaigned actively for increased private funding for the building. As Time Magazine reported in 1927, “Bishop Freeman's dramatization of Washington Cathedral makes it seem the biggest cathedral in the world.” He established a committee designed to raise funds for its construction, and named Pershing as chairman and Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon as a member. A parallel women’s committee was established later under Mrs. Robert Amory and Helen Noyes Brown. The next year, the men’s committee met with Bishop Freeman to update him on its fundraising activities. It would not meet again until 1932, when it and the women’s committee convened just months before the newly expanded building would open.

Typed Letter Signed, Washington, January 23, 1932, to Mrs. Amory. “For some time, I have been anxious to meet again, personally, with the hundred or more men and women, representing all parts of the country, who have given me the honor of associating themselves with me on the National Committee for Washington Cathedral…. The purpose of our gathering will be to render an accounting of our stewardship to Bishop Freeman and the Cathedral Chapter as we review the remarkable progress which has been made in our undertaking since we last met toward the close of 1928. It will give me great pleasure to express my personal appreciation for all that the members of the National Committee and of the National Women’s Committee have done toward this inspiring achievement. To this end, may I have the pleasure of your company and that of Mr. Amory at luncheon at one thirty o’clock on Tuesday, February ninth, in the Refectory of the College of Preachers building at 3510 Woodley Road within the Cathedral Close? This time and place have been selected so that we may have an opportunity to make a pilgrimage to the main floor of the Cathedral and through the Crypts immediately following the luncheon. I sincerely trust that you and Mr. Amory may find it convenient to be present.”

May 5th of that year, Ascension Day, was chosen as the day the church would officially open. There was a sermon, broadcast nationwide by Freeman. President Hoover attended.