EASTER IN NYC. ST. PAUL'S CHAPEL OF TRINITY CHURCH

Today, The Grandma has visited St. Paul's Chapel in Lower Manhattan to commemorate Easter. 

St. Paul's Chapel is a chapel building of Trinity Church, an episcopal parish, located at 209 Broadway, between Fulton Street and Vesey Street, in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

Built in 1766, it is the oldest surviving church building in Manhattan, and one of the nation's finest examples of Late Georgian church architecture. In 1960, the chapel was named a National Historic Landmark; it was also made a New York City Landmark and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. When St. Paul's Chapel remained standing after the September 11, 2001, attacks and the collapse of the World Trade Center behind it, the chapel was subsequently nicknamed The Little Chapel That Stood.

A chapel of the Parish of Trinity Church, St. Paul's was built on land granted by Anne, Queen of Great Britain. Construction on the building's main body began in 1764 and was completed in 1766. The church's spire was added between 1794 and 1796.

Built of Manhattan mica-schist with brownstone quoins, St. Paul's has the classical portico, boxy proportions and domestic details that are characteristic of Georgian churches including James Gibbs' St Martin-in-the-Fields in London. The church's octagonal spire rises from a square base and is topped by a replica of the Athenian Choragic Monument of Lysicrates (c. 335 BC). Inside, the chapel's simple elegant hall has the pale colors, flat ceiling and cut glass chandeliers reminiscent of contemporary domestic interiors.

More information: Trinity Church Wall Street

The church has historically been attributed to Thomas McBean, a Scottish architect and student of James Gibbs. Recent documentation published by historian John Fitzhugh Millar suggests architect Peter Harrison may have instead been responsible for the structure's design. Master craftsman and furniture maker Andrew Gautier produced the church's interior fixtures.

Upon completion in 1766, the church was the tallest building in New York City. It stood in a field some distance from the growing port city to the south and was built as a chapel-of-ease for parishioners who thought the mother church inconvenient to access.

On the Broadway side of the chapel's exterior is an oak statue of the church's patron saint, Saint Paul, carved by an unknown sculptor and installed in 1790. Below the east window is the monument to Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, who died at the Battle of Quebec (1775) during the American Revolutionary War. 

In the spire, the first bell is inscribed Mears London, Fecit [Made] 1797. The second bell, made in 1866, was added in celebration of the chapel's 100th anniversary.

The Hearts of Oak, a militia unit organized early in the American Revolutionary War, and composed in part of King's College (later, Columbia University) students, would drill in the chapel's yard before classes nearby. Alexander Hamilton was an officer of this unit.

The chapel survived the Great New York City Fire of 1776 when a quarter of New York City (then confined to the lower tip of Manhattan), including Trinity Church, burned following the British capture of the city after the Battle of Long Island during the American Revolutionary War.

George Washington, along with members of the United States Congress, worshipped at St. Paul's Chapel on his Inauguration Day, April 30, 1789. Washington also attended services at St. Paul's during the two years New York City was the country's capital. Above Washington's pew is an 18th-century oil painting of the Great Seal of the United States, adopted in 1782.

The chapel contains several monuments and memorials that attest to its elevated status in early New York: a monument to Richard Montgomery (hero of the battle of Quebec) sculpted by Jean-Jacques Caffieri (1777), George Washington's original pew and a Neo-Baroque sculpture called Glory designed by Pierre L'Enfant, the designer of Washington, D.C. The pulpit is surmounted by a coronet and six feathers, and fourteen original cut glass chandeliers hang in the nave and the galleries.

More information: City Beautiful Blog

 Absent in body, but present in spirit.

Saint Paul