CELEBRATING DR. HOORNBEEK’S INAUGURATION

The University of Northwestern – St. Paul inaugurated its ninth president, Dr. Corbin M. Hoornbeek, on Friday, Dec. 2, 2022, in front of a Knight Performance Hall crowd filled with students, faculty, staff, alumni, delegates, Board of Trustees members, and distinguished guests. The 90-minute ceremony, flanked by both a community breakfast and a celebratory luncheon, was comprised of a collection of God-honoring songs of praise and spoken words.

Dr. David Weeks, dean of the Honors College at Azusa Pacific University (APU), presented a message to the president with an emphasis on leadership and Christian liberal education. Weeks, a longtime friend of Dr. Hoornbeek, recognized the new president’s “unflinching devotion” to Northwestern’s mission with his collaborative style, pastoral heart, and tireless pursuit. Charges to Dr. Hoornbeek were also presented by Ann Sorenson, professor of media at Northwestern; Mattie Krause, president of the Northwestern Student Government Association; Dr. Adam Wright, president of Dallas Baptist University; and Andy Youso, on-air host at 98.5 KTIS-FM. Dr. Alan Cureton, Hoornbeek’s presidential predecessor at UNW, closed the ceremony with a prayer of benediction.

Hoornbeek himself delivered a 15-minute address, referencing Jeremiah 29:4–7 and Matthew 5 to reinforce Northwestern’s need to “live as salt and light; as light and leaven for the good of the world” amidst times of unprecedented cultural, spiritual, social, and political division.

Ahead of four Christmas at Northwestern performances, the Northwestern Festival Choir and combined instrumentalists performed several numbers in the inaugural ceremony, including “Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven” and Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus”.

Nazareth Hall, home to many Northwestern chapel services, weddings, classes, and music recitals over decades of years, is a veritable jewel of architecture and a place of dazzling 1920s Romanesque-Byzantine beauty. From the immense expanse of its massive, 105-foot entrance tower to the arched inner vault of its foyer, there is rich symbolism and didactic meaning in the building that has been a recognizable pillar to Northwestern students since 1972.

2022 marked Nazareth Hall’s centennial. The building and its beauty carry a certain amount of nostalgia for those who have spent time on Northwestern’s campus as a student, parent, friend, or visitor. Its history and original purpose, though, are not as widely known. Much of what a Catholic bishop envisioned in the 19th century—well beyond the physical structure—remains intact today as thousands walk through Nazareth each year.

Nazareth was originally constructed as the minor seminary of the Archdiocese of St. Paul. The archdiocese occupied the building and surrounding campus for 47 years until its closure in 1970, a casualty of the 1960s, a time when a flood of minor seminaries were shuttered amid a massive cultural shift in favor of change and modernity. Later that year, Northwestern purchased the suburban St. Paul property from the archdiocese for $2.175 million.

Despite its age, the European-looking structure stands strong today, 50 years after Northwestern acquired the space after its Minneapolis beginnings. The building has been described as frozen poetry—a rhyme in every line, grace, and beauty, and meaning in every part of its stately structure. Both inside and outside Nazareth Hall, art and architecture reach beyond the surface of the senses and touch the depths of the human soul.

Rev. Thomas Grace, the first Catholic bishop of St. Paul, purchased the suburban sylvan land where Nazareth Hall stands in 1866. For the price of $800—approximately $19 per acre—Grace, on behalf of the archdiocese, was able to purchase 42 wooded acres abutting scenic Lake Johanna. In 1915, his successor purchased an additional adjoining 47 acres for $3,525, making a total of 89 wooded lakeshore acres on the pristine shores of a picturesque recreational lake. Several decades later, Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary was built by Archbishop Austin Dowling, a pioneer evangelist who also envisioned the nearby Cathedral of St. Paul.

With a strong commitment to education and having previously served as a ministerial professor, Dowling initiated construction of a seminary built on a lake in the wilds of nature, where students could be formed in the school of virtue in the invigorating world of imagination and the great outdoors, giving deep insight into his advanced psychology of education. There students could connect with nature, an effective teacher, with every wild bird and wavelet on the lakeshore speaking of the glory of God and the beauty of creation. Despite a transition in ownership five decades after Nazareth Hall’s opening, the space for teaching, learning, and worship has remains a vital part of the Northwestern experience.

“Nazareth Hall, with the combination of its style, Biblical symbolism, and large tower, is a beautiful example of sacred space in the Twin Cities,” reflected Dr. Mark Baden, who has served as Professor Emeritus in Northwestern’s Department of Art and Design. “As you approach and enter Nazareth, you’re invited to come into the presence of Christ, to be schooled under his authority, and to take on his burden, just as we read in Matthew 11.”

In 1921, the building’s original construction contract called for 25,000 barrels of cement to be used. The large, multi-purpose building that was designed was actually six buildings in one, requiring 200 tons of reinforced steel, 600,000 bricks, and 200,000 red face bricks for the exterior. Materials were used from all over the world in the chapel to symbolize the universality of the Church. Nazareth Hall was built with relatively great speed. When the cornerstone was laid on May 21, 1922, construction was already well under way with the foundation and first floor completed; the building finally opened in Sept. 1923. Although the original construction estimate was $500,000, its final cost was a debtless $1.2 million.

Maginnis & Walsh, an architecture firm from Boston, Mass., designed Nazareth Hall, having unparalleled skill in ecclesiastical design, as evidenced in scores of churches across the country, including their most monumental work, the National Shrine in Washington, D.C. The architects surveyed the sight and seized the possibilities of the setting among the trees and lakeside, effectively designing a building that would fit into the landscape, while giving attention to the conveniences of the lake’s view and breeze, bolstering the quality of life for generations who lived and studied on the shores of Lake Johanna. The entire complex shows many innovations in structural engineering and design, with priority given to both aesthetic significance and practical functionality in every possible feature.

Nazareth was designed in the style of North Italian Lombard Romanesque. It was fortuitous and originally built as a series of buildings that were actually connected as one large building—a definite plus in Minnesota winters, designed to accommodate between 200-250 youths who lived and studied on the campus. From the beginning, the approved design was a building that was intended to enrapture the attention and imagination of young students, thus the fortress theme with tower to inspire them to greatness and the noble pursuit of knowledge.

When visitors approach the main entrance, they are greeted with a semi-circular tympanum, the central piece of art on the exterior. It shows a carved figure in high relief—in the style of the art of the catacombs—with Christ the Good Shepherd depicted as a boy standing between two palm trees and two sheep resting at his feet. The setting allowed the seminary boys to put themselves in the picture, identifying with the Puer Nazrenus (the boy of Nazareth). Carved in the Latin on the stone interval are the words from John 10:7, which translate to “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.” The carving continues with the scripture Dr. Baden referenced from Mark 11 and NAZARETH HALL is carved in the limestone above the entrance. On either side is a simplified rendition of the Jerusalem Cross, representative of the five sacred wounds of the passion of Christ. The pillars that mark the entrance are supporting images above the capitals that represent the four Gospels, emblematic of the flowering of Christianity atop the pagan rubble of ancient Rome. This door leads into the entrance stairwell, with a painted image above the entrance/ exit of the Transfiguration of Christ on Mt. Tabor, where the countenance of Christ changed and His raiment became a radiant white.

Inside, the chapel was designed with a wide center aisle for processions and two narrow side aisles, framed by heavy supporting columns from which the arched ceiling springs. The ceiling vault is supported by massive polished marble columns with foliate capitals, supporting the arches opening to the side aisles. The spanning arches are adorned with ornamental tile panels. All of these elements lend to perfect acoustics, designed for an age before the advent of microphones and sophisticated interior church sound systems. The Stations of the Cross move in an east-to-west direction throughout the room, following the footsteps of Jesus as he makes his way to Calvary and the impending crucifixion. The 15th and final station, the resurrection of Christ, is represented at the altar.

The walls were lined with red Numidian marble— an extremely rare marble, imported from Algeria where the Romans had mined it themselves in ancient times. In the late 1800s, those same mines were rediscovered. When the chapel was built, full advantage was made of this recent discovery as with many other period building projects of the same decade.

The main body of the chapel was finished in stone and tile with an elegant arched barrel vault ceiling in “Guastavino” style, lending a Mediterranean look designed according to the brilliant tile arch system, complete with interlocking terracotta tiles. This was a version of the Catalan vault invented for modern construction and patented by Spanish architect and builder Rafael Guastavino. Guastavino’s work can be found in monuments and landmarks throughout the world, such as the Boston Public Library, the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Asheville, North Carolina, and the Ellis Island Registry Room in New York.

The Nazareth sanctuary has an alpine-green marble floor and walls covered in red Numidian marble, uniting the décor of the sanctuary with that of the rest of the church in unbroken unison and color. The polished marble was cut in Africa, shipped to Minnesota and installed in a butterfly—matching pairs—technique. In similar fashion, the massive white pillars, from Italy, were shipped across the ocean and transported by train to their final destination. The pillars that stand in Nazareth Hall today are actually the second set. Due in part to the weight of the columns, the first group sank on a ship amidst the journey across the Atlantic Ocean.

While the building eventually changed ownership, its name remains. With regard to how the building received its name, the Catholic Bulletin published the following in 1922, after Nazareth’s completion:

This building has been fittingly called Nazareth Hall, which implies a special consecration. Christ, in preparation for the exercise of His Priesthood, had the quiet and retirement of years at Nazareth. There He grew in age and wisdom, worked, cultivated obedience which culminated in the obedience of the Cross. Here the young men who are to become ‘other Christs’ will have their years of Nazareth. They will learn to love obedience, and they will grow in wisdom, worldly and divine. As over the Nazareth of old, so over this the Spirit of the Most High will hover and brood and work out His mysterious wonders of grace.

The publication continued,

The purpose of this building is the highest that can engage the attention of the human mind. Here are to be gathered strong, intelligent, innocent young men who will dedicate their physical strength, their mental powers, and the innocence of their youth to the service of Almighty God. Here they will be protected from the many and great dangers to which the youth of our day are exposed. This preparatory seminary will be the garden for the body, mind, and soul from which these young men will pass into the vestibule and sanctuary of the church.

100 years later, much of that same purpose exists—to equip students to grow intellectually and spiritually so they may serve effectively in their professions and give God-honoring leadership in their home, the church, in their community, and throughout the world.