In 1929 William Lightner began this extraordinary work which expressed his artistic vision and religious faith. The grotto was Lightner's response to a suggestion by the Sisters of Mercy that he build a shrine to the Virgin Mary. The grotto was begun as Lightner's company was constructing Warde Hall at Mount Mercy College. The grotto was dedicated by Archbishop Francis Beckman in 1941.
From its beginning the grotto's ten acres were a haven for reflection and meditation as well as a favorite location for college ceremonies. The grotto could draw seven hundred visitors a day.
Lightner was a convert to the church after his marriage at age thirty-three, and intended the Grotto to be a symbol of his faith. He began by building the two arched entry ways. These were followed by a bridge surrounded by a lagoon, a ten column structure representing the ten commandments, and a monumental central shrine, containing mosaics of the seven sorrow's of Christ's mother.
Lightner travelled more than forty thousand miles throughout the United States and Mexico looking for building materials. He contacted suppliers around the world in search of more than three hundred unusual varieties of stones that were used in creating the structures. Over 1,200 tons of stones were used, and the cost exceeded $40,000. The four structures still standing reveal Lightner's unique sense of visual design, as well as providing a multitude of geological specimens, including coral from Hawaii, petrified wood, lapidolite, white quartz, blue azurite, and rose quartz from Colorado and the Black Hills of South Dakota.
The bridge was intended to represent his personal crossing to faith. The ten column structure was the centerpiece of the lagoon with each of the commandments inscribed on the base in mosaic. The huge central shrine was a grotto cave holding a white marble statue of the Virgin Mary made from Carrara marble by the Italian sculptor Marcello Rebechini which was installed in 1949.
The lagoon was drained in 1970. Erosion, lack of funding for upkeep and vandalism made is necessary to level the grotto's main structure in 1974. College apartment housing now occupies the site of the large central shrine and lagoon.
William Lightner's work was created in the tradition of such visionary artwork as Simon Rodia's Watts Towers in Los Angeles, Paul Dobberstein's Grotto of Redemption in West Bend, Iowa and Father Mathias Wernerus' Holy Ghost Park in Dickeyville, Wisconsin.
Grotto preservation is supported by the generosity of Ortha Harstad, The Friends of Our Lady of Sorrows Grotto, The Sisters of Mercy and Mount Mercy College. Special thanks also to the Lightner family for their cooperation and support. Historical research provided by Sister Augustine Roth, RSM, Ortha Harstad, and Mount Mercy College alumni Kathleen Braun, Marlena Hinzman and Robert Marrs.
William Lightner
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