The American architect Bertram Goodhue (1869 - 1924) was highly praised for his mastery of the neo-Gothic style of architecture, and was awarded many of the finest commissions that society could offer any architect during the high-water mark of the WASP ascendancy.
This article appeared in The Literary Digest just as his design for St. Thomas Church on New York's Fifth Avenue was nearing completion and he shared with the journalist his insights as to how he designs churches:
"Sometimes, of course, the cloistral effect is needed, in a monastery, for instance. And the church must always have solemnity, but not coldness. I have tried in my work to express this quality of invitation, together with sanctity and a degree of magnificence quite undreamed of in my craftsman days."
