St. Paul's Chapel of Trinity Parish - New York, NY - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

"Below the Woolworth Building, on Broadway between Vesey and Fulton Streets, is St Paul's Chapel of Trinity Parish, the oldest church building in Manhattan. It's cornerstone was laid May 14th, 1764, in a field sloping to the Hudson River. The architect, James McBean, a Scot is said to have been a pupil of James Gibbs. Gibbs designed the Renaissance church of St Martin's-in-the-Fields, in London, which greatly influenced the design of St Paul's."

St Pauls looks much the same as when it was built other than the usual upgrades for electricity, etc. It's now a part of the Trinity Parish and is a chapel for the larger Trinity Cathedral that faces down Wall Street, not far away.

The church's history is long and varied. George Washington worshiped here and after his inaguration both houses of Congress accompanied him to St Pauls to worship. Yes, New York City was, briefly, the new nation's capital.

Today it has grimmer memories as it looks across Church Street from the back and there, on September 11, 2001, the Twin Towers fell covering the church with debris. The volunteers and firemen were welcomed in to rest, sleep and eat. The iron fence around the cemetery was covered with memorial's and requests asking if someone has seen a loved one. There is a very nice 911 memorial inside the church and it brought tears to my eyes.

A large tree in the back was blown over by the crash of the towers but only fell on the path, not damaging a single tombstone. Most of the tombstones are so old you are unable to make out who was buried there. The American Guide talks about office workers walking in the restful cemetery during lunch and today it is still full of people eating lunch, looking at the tombstones and enjoying the shade.

Book: New York City Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 98 Year Originally Published: 1939

Visit Instructions:
To log a Visit, please supply an original image of the Waymark.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   03/04/2023 Ariberna visited it 04/15/2022 Don.Morfe visited it 05/17/2018 Trail Blaisers visited it 06/28/2016 bluesnote visited it 04/16/2016 chrissyml visited it 04/10/2016 jezevcik visited it 01/31/2015 denben visited it 01/10/2014 Ourspolaire&Gemeloj visited it 09/27/2013 Queens Blessing visited it 09/23/2013 gemeloj visited it 08/15/2013 VisN visited it 07/27/2013 GPComd visited it 10/06/2012 UMainah visited it 08/06/2012 Clan RunningBison visited it 12/09/2011 white-star visited it 09/11/2011 RaďousCZ visited it 08/17/2011 Metro2 visited it 07/23/2011 ras258 visited it 10/17/2009 Canadianzombie visited it 06/17/2009 The Sims visited it 05/16/2009 volatile visited it 12/06/2001 ReZappers visited it 10/12/1998 Volcanoguy visited it 06/01/1995 Odyssey Posse visited it

View all visits/logs