Text taken from https://cathedral.org/about/mission-vision/
"The idea for a sacred home for all Americans in the nation’s capital is as old as the country itself. Pierre L’Enfant’s original design for the new capital city included a “great church for national purposes,” an idea that sat idle until a congressional charter authorized a cathedral dedicated to religion, education and charity, in 1893. Construction began in 1907, when President Theodore Roosevelt helped lay the foundation stone. Through world wars, the Great Depression and immense social change, construction ended exactly 83 years after it began, when President George H.W. Bush oversaw the laying of the final stone atop the towers, in 1990".
"The Cathedral is an active member of The Episcopal Church and is supported by generous donors from across the globe; we receive no direct support from the federal government or any national church body ".
"Since its construction, Washington National Cathedral has seen many important services related to its national profile. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached his last Sunday sermon from the Cathedral pulpit just days before his assassination in 1968".
Fragment taken from the internet
