LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Washington National Cathedral is a tourist destination, a house of worship and the site of presidential inaugural prayer services and presidential funerals. The architect and priest who oversees its historic preservation and its fine arts projects will talk about the famous building in a free Sept. 10 lecture at the University of Louisville.
The Rev. John Runkle, cathedral conservator, will talk about “Washington National Cathedral: A Century of Excellence in Architecture and Art” at 6 p.m. in Speed Art Museum Auditorium, 2035 S. Third St. Parking is available in the adjacent garage for $1.50 an hour.
The public event is a Frederic Lindley Morgan architectural history lecture, named for the late Louisville building designer and sponsored by UofL’s fine arts department.
Runkle will talk about the historic context and the people who contributed to the formation of Washington National Cathedral, which celebrated its centennial in 2007. The cathedral, sixth largest in the world and second largest in the United States, is visited by nearly 700,000 people annually.
Runkle has worked at the cathedral since 2005 after serving as an interim church rector and consultant to the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. He also has worked as an architect for a firm specializing in church design and for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.