on the western elevation of the facade above the narthex. The project would cost $1.5 million, even though St, John's only had about $200,000 on hand as of June 1915. A groundbreaking ceremony for the nave was held on May 8, 1916. That November, construction stopped due to material and funding shortages during World War I, and the trustees had decided against raising funds until after the war. Cram edited his plans in the interim. In February 1919, the trustees approved Cram's revised plan to incorporate a memorial for soldiers. The new plans required $5–6 million, but would make St. John's the third- or fourth-largest worldwide. The cathedral did not yet have the money to build the nave, and furthermore, in 1920 the trustees decided not to hold fundraising drives for said purpose. Because of an unstable economy, work did not resume for another four years, though both Greer and Bishop Charles Sumner Burch supported the project. In 1923, Burch's successor William T. Manning announced a $15 million capital campaign to raise money for this project. The New York campaign committee, headed by then-governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, campaigned from 1923 to 1925 to raise $6 million (). By May 1924, Manning announced that $2.5 million had been donated within the previous three months, and that work on the nave would soon begin if that rate of donation were to continue. St. John's was seeking price estimates for the nave's construction by that November, and the baptistery was donated the same year. Some $7.7 million had been raised by February 1925, and the laying of the nave's cornerstone occurred on November 9, 1925. Manning wanted the cathedral to be an interdenominational place of worship, but was still reluctant to add other denominations' members to the board of trustees. Notably, Manning rejected a request from John D. Rockefeller Jr., a Baptist, despite the latter's $500,000 donation toward the cathedral's building fund. In January 1927, Manning announced that the trustees had approved Cram's proposal for a square tower above the crossing; the tower would replace the dome, which did not conform to the Gothic style. With sides of , the tower would be half as wide as the arches below it. Cram's blueprint revisions, published in 1929, entailed building the square tower over the crossing, and adding two portals to the western elevation. Additionally, St. John's northern transept began construction in December 1927.