Architecture
Stanford Memorial Church was built during the American Renaissance period, a time of architectural eclecticism, so elements of styles from different eras are synthesized in its design. The architectural style of Stanford Memorial Church has been referred to as "a stunning example of late Victorian ecclesiastical art and architecture with echoes of Pre-Raphaelitism". As it stands today, having been altered after earthquake damage, Stanford Memorial Church has the plan and structure of a large Romanesque church while the extensive use of mosaic and the foliate forms of the stone carvings reflect Byzantine styles seen by Jane Stanford on her visits to the churches of Constantinople and St Mark's Basilica, Venice.
The architect was Charles A. Coolidge, a protégé of Henry Hobson Richardson, and who developed the massing of Richardson's Trinity Church in Boston, (1876). Like Trinity Church, Memorial Church originally had a large central tower with turrets and a twelve-sided spire, but this was lost as a result of the 1906 earthquake. The church's blueprints were prepared by Clinton E. Day of San Francisco, and Charles E. Hodges was the supervising architect for the project. Jane Stanford hired builder John McGilvray, who was responsible for constructing the St. Francis Hotel, the City Hall complex in San Francisco, and much of Stanford University, for the actual construction of Stanford Memorial Church.
Jane Stanford's taste and knowledge of both contemporary and classical art is evident in several aspects of the plan, appearance, and architecture of the church, which "dazzle the eye yet also produce an atmosphere of quiet contemplation". On her direction, Coolidge imitated the "glorious color" of the European cathedrals, especially those in Italy. Although the iconography in the church is Christian, Stanford was a "late Victorian progressive", and chose the art less for its religious themes and more for its "humanitarian ethics". She requested that the designs include women, "to show the uplifting influence of religion for women"; there are many women depicted in the 24 mosaics throughout the church. Art historian Judy Oberhausen reports that Stanford used compendium of biblical illustrations like The Story of the Bible by Charles Foster, which contained 300 illustrations and summarized the events and stories she wished to depict in the church's windows and mosaics.
Jane Stanford's design included inspirational messages placed throughout the church in the form of inscriptions carved into its walls and enclosed in carved frameworks. As Barbara Palmer of the Stanford Report stated, Stanford "had her religious beliefs literally carved into the church's sandstone walls". For example, the following quotations can be found in the church's east transept:
Religion is intended as a comfort, a solace, a necessity to the soul's welfare; and whichever form of religion furnishes the greatest comfort, the greatest solace, it is the form which should be adopted be its name what it will.
The best form of religion is trust in God, and a firm belief in the immortality of the soul, life everlasting.
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