Westminster Presbyterian Church

Part 6: The Cathedrals of Downtown Minneapolis

Jul 26, 2022

This is part 6 of a multi-part series.

My third stop on day two of my cathedral tour was Westminster Presbyterian Church, built in 1897:

One of the first things that caught my eye was this beautiful fountain sculpture by Paul Granlund, the fourth of his sculptures I had seen on this trip:

I found myself getting the “Minnesota nice” treatment on entering the church. The door was locked, and I spoke to the woman at the front desk through the doorbell line. “I just wanted to come in and look around and say a prayer in your chapel.” She buzzed me in an we talked some more. I told her I had often admired the church from the outside, and wanted to see it from the inside as well. She let my compliment fall flat. I asked if it was alright if I took some pictures and said, “I suppose so.” She told me there was a chapel and a sanctuary, waving her hand in the direction of both, and left me to wander.

I went to the chapel first. Luckily for me, the lights were on inside, but they were off in the windowless antechamber, and I was in pitch dark when the door closed behind me. I resorted to the flashlight on my phone, but eventually found the light switch for the antechamber.

After saying a prayer in the chapel, I checked out some of the gorgeous artwork that lined the hallways of the church. I made my way to the sanctuary. The lights were off there as well. I looked around a good deal, but could not find the light switch. I suppose I should have asked someone if they could turn on the lights, but the sun was bright outside, and I could see alright.

After saying a prayer in the sanctuary, I took some more pictures of the artwork in the halls. As I was on my way out, I noted that there was a different woman at the front desk now, and even though we only had a brief exchange, I could tell she was a thousand times kinder than the woman who was there before, and I wished that it was her that I met when I first came in.

It’s really a beautiful, beautiful church. The collection of artwork lining the hallways is pretty impressive. I’m sorry the lighting is bad in the pictures from the sanctuary.