Blessed Sacrament Cathedral

Project Details

Project Description

Ellison Bronze, Inc. offers its custom door systems to Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Greensburg, PA. The new entry systems offer a pleasing aesthetic to match the exterior of the decades-old structure.

Blessed Sacrament Cathedral was originally built for the Most Holy Sacrament Parish, a parish of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, in the late 1920s. The church did not become a cathedral until Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Greensburg in 1951. Due to this new appointment, the cathedral underwent several renovations over the next few decades.

One of the changes made in the 1960s was the replacement of the original, austere looking, dark planked tongue-and-groove wooden doors with non-traditional glass doors. The glass doors did not provide a pleasing aesthetic in combination with the Romanesque and Early Gothic style of the church, prompting the most recent project team to turn to Ellison Bronze for four of their custom bronze balanced doors – a pair at the church’s main entrance, and a single door on each side of the building integrated with a panel of stained glass windows.

The inspiration for bronze came from the original communion rail screens around the chancel of the church. In the 1950s, the screens were removed as part of a renovation, and incorporated into a new exterior sign for the church. The design team called for custom doors that mirrored the look of the sign, creating cast bronze panels that would represent the original design and fit with the Romanesque and Early Gothic look.