York's assistant bishop in 1883, he convened the trustees to look for an alternate site. On June 1, 1887, Henry Potter publicly announced his intention to build St. John's, though the exact location was still to be determined. Potter described the planned cathedral as an "American Westminster Abbey" that would rival the Catholic St. Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan. In his announcement, Potter called on New Yorkers to give funds toward the new cathedral, which was expected to cost $10 million. The plans for the cathedral were well received by both Protestants and non-Protestants, as well as the media and other denominational leaders. The donors included the wealthy Astor, Vanderbilt, and Belmont families. Additionally, the Barberini family's tapestries were gifted to the cathedral in 1891. Numerous sites in Manhattan were examined for the new cathedral's location, and by 1889, the Leake and Watts Asylum between 110th and 113th Streets had been chosen as the site for the future site of St. John's. News media such as The New York Times and Uptown Visitor praised the decision, as the site was located on a high point overlooking Central and Morningside Parks. The committee had wanted to build slightly further north, on a more elevated plot between 116th Street to the south and 119th Street to the north. However, that plot would be too difficult to acquire, as ownership of that tract was divided among several entities; by contrast, the Leake and Watts Asylum had full control over their entire city block. The asylum site was deeded to the cathedral in October 1891, and the asylum moved to Westchester County, New York. The asylum site was then acquired for $850,000. At the time, Morningside Heights was quickly being developed as a residential neighborhood surrounded by numerous higher-education institutions. The proposed cathedral's elevated location would have been visible from New Jersey, across the Hudson River to the west, as well as from the New York Bay to the south. Architecture competition Simultaneously, there was also debate over the new cathedral's style; because of the larger plot and more remote location from Midtown Manhattan it was expected to be more elaborate than St. Patrick's. The trustees had formed a Committee on Architecture in conjunction with William Robert Ware, a Columbia architecture professor, which held a design competition for St. John that involved several prominent architectural firms. Though everyone was free to enter the competition,