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At the median landing of the Grand Staircase is a Tiffany stained-glass window depicting the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. It symbolically reinforces the lecture of the Garden Room and prepares one for entrance into the Telestial Room, representing the world in which we live.
The Telestial Room forms the southwest quadrant of the second floor and rests on the ceiling trusses of the Baptistry. On either side of the altar on the west wall are two round arched portals which enter into the vestibule compartments. The larger portal ot the south of the altar opens into the southeast corner vestibule and is on the level of the lecture hall. The north portal is coniderably higher on the wall necessitating a steep staircase. It leads to the elevator vestibule of the west center tower and also interconnects with a similar staircase in the adjoining Terrestrial Room.
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In contrast to the Garden Room, the Telestial Room is embellished by a continuous mural of the earth in a fallen rather than an exalted state.
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The endowment ritual concludes upon entrance into the Celestial Room. The symbolic importance of the room is apparent from its increased size. The most obvious dimensional change is its thirty-four-foot-high ceiling. The spatial expansion was a deliberate effort to express visually a feeling of exaltation and a spiritual terminus. The concept of a terminus is suggested by the absence of an altar and the accustomed attached and oriented row seating. Instead, luxuriously appointed chairs and couches are placed in formal conversational arrangements. The furniture is set within an environment designed to imply the majesty that one would associate with the Kingdom of God. The complexity of gilded classical and baroque forms speaks of the then contemporary Ecole des Beaux Arts tradition in the manner of Richard Morris Hunt. The Celestial Room does not exhibit the restraint of the Terrestrial Room.
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Recipient of the Benny Award of Excellence.
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