While below us readers, quoting from newspaper accounts of the day, told the thrilling story of the dome’s collapse, I tried out different angles for our repeat. “I scooted around the upper outside edge of the oculus. The ***** and Foss altar railing ***** the gift of Mr. Jean is clean and stays so.) The main altar and Sanctuary. James Cathedral – ABOVE & BELOW the original altar, before the crash. My guide had already hoisted a snowmaking machine up onto the opposite side of the oculus, waiting for a dramatic, if necessarily truncated, recreation of the Big Snow of 1916 during the service. Squeezing between struts and support beams, we climbed several ladders to reach our final destination: the oculus, a twelve-foot- (I’m guessing here) wide circular opening directly above the altar of the cathedral. “After reaching the rooftop, we clambered through a small exterior door leading into the ‘attic.’ To avoid interrupting the centennial service below, we crept along catwalks and ramps in near darkness. She asked, “How does Jean feel about heights?” After I listed some of his ascents, she agreed to introduce Jean to Brenda Bellamy who would serve as his guide. James, to ask about the possibility of repeating the hole-in-the-dome shot from the Big Snow of 1916 during the commemorative service. I next called Maria Laughlin, Director of Stewardship at St. Hunthausen, first alerted us to the decision of the archdiocese to create a centennial commemoration of the dome’s fall. John McCoy, past archdiocesan spokesman and author of A Still and Quiet Conscience, a biography of Seattle Archbishop Emeritus Raymond G. Had Jean Sherrard been taking our ‘nows’ in 1983, it might have been different, for he embraces exposed heights that I shunned then and now. (We will include it at the very bottom of what follows.) It was, however, not that Sunday’s “THEN” photo, which was a portrait of the intact cathedral, but played instead a supporting although still dominating role in the feature. James Cathedral for a Pacific feature on March 17, 1983. I confess to having first used this rousing photo of the snow-doomed-dome of St.
James Cathedral’s oculus, or ‘God’s Eye,’ during the special centennial service commemorating the dome’s collapse, which fortunately occurred on a Wednesday when no one was at church. It fell “with a crashing roar that was heard many blocks distant.” (Courtesy Catholic Archdiocese.) NOW: Jean Sherrard looks down through St. James Cathedral dome – that crashed under the weight of the “Northwest Blizzard” in February 1916, the last was the grandest and probably loudest. (click to enlarge photos) THEN: Of the three largest Seattle roofs – the Alki Point Natatorium, a grandstand section of the U.W.’s Denny Field, and the St.
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