Cavanaugh Foundation-John Cavanaugh Sculpture

thanks for enjoying Cavanaugh's great work and legacy!! new work will be installed this comin year in Washington DC

Two of the seven hammered lead reliefs from 1801-03 Swann Street Building that Cavanaugh created - inspired by the Proust' book Swann's Way.

Sculpture REview with lead story about John Cavanaugh

May Queen, by John Cavanaugh - hammered lead

Cavanaugh’s Cross of St Thomas’ Parish
Gordon J. Alt*

Almost 50 years ago, St Thomas’s Parish Church, one of “the most beautiful ecclesiastical buildings in the District”, was consumed by a fiery conflagration. Set by arsonists in 1970, only a large hall on the Church Street side and a few offices were left. The broken remains of the main alter and the destroyed rear window wall was left standing, and the rest of the space became a beloved park for the DuPont Circle neighborhood.

During this difficult time, a small group of church members formed the Phoenix Rising Project, led by Douglas Whitlock and organized to raise funds to ready the remaining hall for church services. In 1973 Washington sculptor John Cavanaugh was asked to create a cross to be hung above the new alter in the Great Hall. His sculptures which can be seen in the Cavanaugh Sculpture Garden on the grounds of the Women’s National Democratic Club at Q Street and New Hampshire Avenue, NW and on several Dupont area buildings he restored, hammered the cross out of lead and plated it with silver.

photo–courtesy The John Cavanaugh Foundation.

The beautiful sculpture he created displays a variety of unique relief elements resembling nail heads, angel wings, stylized Coptic images and symbol of the three crosses on Calvary at the top. In a 1974 church bulletin featuring an image of the Cross above the new alter reads, “This Cross, in the Great Hall, was dedicated in memory of Douglas Whitlock on Sunday, April 21st, by Bishop Creighton.”

photo–courtesy The John Cavanaugh Foundation.

A few years ago, as Pastor Alex Dyer and church leaders started to move out of the parish hall building that had survived the fire in preparation for the new church building, they asked The John Cavanaugh Foundation to take the cross down from the alter for safekeeping. During this time the Foundation was able to restore the cross to it’s former glory and this month will return it to the historic collection of St Thomas’ Parish.

*The writer is Executive Director of The John Cavanaugh Foundation. He also serves as Vice President of the National Sculpture Society, and is a Member of Editorial Board of Sculpture Review Magazine.

Copyright © 2019 InTowner Publishing Corp. & Gordon J. Alt.