A 5.8 magnitude earthquake that struck central Virginia at 1:55 p.m. Aug. 23 and rippled up the East Coast has caused damage to Washington National Cathedral that will cost millions to repair.

The cathedral closed to visitors immediately following the quake, moving an Aug. 27 prayer service for the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (the memorial dedication was later postponed indefinitely due to a hurricane threat) and its regular Sunday services to the Washington Hebrew Congregation.

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, dazed staff, tourists, docents and clergy poured out of the cathedral and its surrounding buildings and stood in outside in huddles on the grass.

“We were sitting inside in the pews, waiting for a tour, when I felt this shaking,” said David Harold, who was visiting the cathedral from Portland, Oregon. “And then I could hear it, and I said, ‘This is an earthquake.’”

Cathedral docent B. Stacey said that a piece of masonry fell inside the cathedral, into the nave's center aisle. Stacey said "it felt like an up and down shaking, rather than a side to side."

Former Cathedral Chapter members John Shenefield and Eileen Yago were at a meeting in Sayre House with development officer Suzy Mink, when they felt the upheaval. “Suzy makes her meetings exciting,” said Shenefield, “but this is beyond anything.”

The two also said they heard the cathedral’s bells ringing as the earth shook.

The cathedral’s Gloria in Excelsis tower, which houses both the peal bells and the carillon, sustained the most damage, a team of structural engineers, architects and stone masons reported during an Aug. 24 press conference.

Three of the tower’s four pinnacles (corner spires) were damaged and a number of the decorative angels at their base fell onto the roof, along with the finials (decorative points).

Similar decorative elements on the cathedral’s gothic exterior were damaged, and cracks have appeared in some of the flying buttresses around the apse at the cathedral's east end – the oldest part of the building. Inside, some of the stone jewels came loose and will need refitting.

Damage assessment began right away, and on Aug. 26 construction workers were unloading scaffolding outside the cathedral. At press time, the cathedral remained closed to the public, though a series of events commemorating 9/11, A Call to Compassion, were expected to go ahead as planned.

“The good news is that most of the damage has been decorative and on the exterior,” Dean Samuel T. Lloyd said. “There are going to be some things we’ll have to deal with, but it could have been much worse.”

The “delicate, lacy pinnacles” were the weakest part of the structure, said Jim Cutts, who had worked on an earlier restoration of the central tower, describing them as “works of art.” He said repair and restoration work would take “a lot of time.”

“We’re going to make every effort to salvage and preserve as much of the original work as possible,’ said mason foreman Joe Alonso, adding that “this is a handmade building.”

“This is the first time we’ve had these large amounts of sculpture damaged,” he added. “It’s a little disconcerting to me and my colleagues who are stone carvers, but we’re going to put this back together the right way and respect the work of our forbearers, of stone carvers and masons who came before us.”

None of the damage is covered by insurance, cathedral spokesman Richard Weinberg confirmed, and the cathedral is soliciting gifts of any size to help repair the damage. Donations can be made online at http://www.dcquake.nationalcathedral.org/.