12 April, 2008 The Cathedral of all Souls Asheville, NC - All Souls Church was conceived as a congregation and a building by George Vanderbilt, developer of the Biltmore Estate and Biltmore Village, to be the central focus of the village. The Church and Parish Hall, designed by Richard Morris Hunt, were completed in 1896.
The style of the main church building is from the Norman period of transition from Romanesque to Gothic. The basic plan is cruciform (cross shaped), using proportions of the Greek cross, which features a short nave or main body of the room. The design is said to be inspired by abbey churches in Northern England, though the apse, or semi-circular chancel, is characteristic of churches in Southern France.
Originally, all the windows were mouth blown, hand leaded translucent glass such as those seen today in the Parish Hall. The windows in the chancel and nave were replaced by memorial windows of stained opalescent glass.
The six memorial windows in the transepts depict scenes from the Bible; they and the windows in the chancel and those facing the front porch were given in the late 1890's and the early 1900's. The tower windows are memorials and dedications that have been given over the years, the last three being installed in 1996, All Souls Centennial. (Photo by Walter G. Arce/ASP, Inc.)