Look to your right for a sharply peaked red brick structure featuring a prominent circular, flower-like window set high on its facade and bright red double doors. This is the Cathedral of St. James, completed in 1894.
The parish wanted something monumental, a physical legacy that proved their permanence in South Bend. So they made a bold, calculated investment by hiring the architectural firm of Austin and Parker. These two were not your average local draftsmen. Both Ennis R. Austin and Wilson B. Parker had previously worked for the renowned Tiffany Glass Company in New York. By hiring them, the cathedral secured a direct pipeline to the most coveted glassmakers in the world.
They designed the building in the Gothic Revival style, a design language borrowing heavily from medieval European churches with steeply pitched roofs and tall, pointed arches meant to draw the eye upward. But the true masterstrokes are the windows. Take a glance at your app screen to see that large circular opening on the front. That holds the cathedral's rose window, a spectacular circular pane divided by stone framing that radiates outward like flower petals.
This window is a spectacular, original Tiffany masterpiece. It was so impressive that before being installed here, it was reportedly exhibited to the masses at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Because why let a magnificent piece of art sit quietly in a crate when you can show it off at a World Fair first. The window was a staggering financial gift from Peter Studebaker, treasurer of the powerful Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company. Inside, you will also find two more identical Tiffany windows on the north wall, cast in brilliant purple and gold tones.
Austin clearly understood how to build breathtaking spaces for the divine. But his architectural talents were not limited to saving souls. Next, we are going to look at another one of his projects, engineered for a very different, far more corporate kind of ambition. Let us head toward the I and M Building, which is just a one-minute walk away. If you ever want to see those glass masterpieces from the inside, the cathedral is open on Tuesday through Friday mornings until one thirty, and Sunday mornings.
