SAINT PAUL'S CHAPEL

Saint Paul's Chapel is known as "the Little Chapel That Stood."  The chapel has survived two major disasters.   Miraculously in the destruction and chaos of 9/11, the chapel stood standing and undamaged while the two World Trade Towers directly across the street crumbled.  

Many New Yorkers see Saint Paul's survival as a miracle.  The Chapel That Stood became a symbol of hope at a time of a national tragedy and sorrow and grief.  During the days following 9/11, it was converted into a rescue and recovery station for emergency workers, firemen, and policemen.  

Saint Paul’s has become a shrine for those who wish to remember the victims of 9/11.  Remembrances and memorials placed on a fence in front of the church are now part of a special exhibit inside.  A Healing Heart and Minds exhibit is a tribute to the fire fighters, police officers, and EMS responders on that sad day and those that followed.  The exhibit contains police and firefighter patches from all over the world.  

Built in 1766, Saint Paul's Chapel is a historic church where George Washington worshipped following his first inauguration at Federal Hall on April 30, 1789.  Constructed during the years 1764 – 1766, the church’s Georgian interior was designed by the French architect, Pierre L’Enfant, who also designed the city of Washington, DC.  Fourteen cut-glass Waterford chandeliers brought from Ireland in 1802 light the church and its windows are hand-blown frosted glass.  

Brave citizens saved St. Paul's from destruction during the Great Fire of 1776 by climbing on its rooftop and putting out the fire.  That fire destroyed the original Trinity Church and much of downtown Manhattan.   The oldest public building still in use in Manhattan, the chapel is Manhattan's only pre-Revolutionary War church.   At the end of the war in December 1783, Washington and the Continental troops returned to the city in a triumphal procession marching down Broadway past St. Paul’s.  Behind the chapel facing Church Street is a small graveyard.   That entrance, seen in the right photo above, was the original entrance facing the Hudson River.  The Broadway entrance now serves as the main one.

The nearby 9/11 Memorial Museum and One World Trade Center provide peaceful solace to New Yorkers, Americans, and worldwide visitors.