Trinity Church
On Broadway at the foot of Wall Street, Trinity Church has been at this site since the 1696. Throughout the colonial era, the church held a large farm, which, as the city grew, was parceled and rented out. Apparently the church was a delinquent landlord and the area fell into disrepair. By the American Revolution, it was the city's red-light district, sarcastically known as "The Holy Ground", and it claimed as many as 500 prostitutes- a huge number for a town of less than 50,000.
This particular church was built in 1846, around the same time as the nearby New York Customs House (Federal Hall). It was the tallest building in the city and dominated the skyline, until the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge went up in the 1870's.
Notables buried in the churchyard include Alexander Hamilton, Robert Fulton, John Jacob Astor, and Civil War era diarist George Templeton Strong, the "Northern Mary Chesnut", who wrote in 1868:
"To be a citizen of New York is a disgrace. A domicile on Manhattan Island is a thing to be confessed with apologies and humiliation. The New Yorker belongs to a community worse governed by lower and baser scum than any city in Western Christendom."
Today, it's a much-loved New York institution. During the Trade Center attack, it served as a refuge physically and spiritually, and miraculously only a few old trees on the grounds were damaged.
Lower Manhattan
August 18, 2010
Trinity Church
On Broadway at the foot of Wall Street, Trinity Church has been at this site since the 1696. Throughout the colonial era, the church held a large farm, which, as the city grew, was parceled and rented out. Apparently the church was a delinquent landlord and the area fell into disrepair. By the American Revolution, it was the city's red-light district, sarcastically known as "The Holy Ground", and it claimed as many as 500 prostitutes- a huge number for a town of less than 50,000.
This particular church was built in 1846, around the same time as the nearby New York Customs House (Federal Hall). It was the tallest building in the city and dominated the skyline, until the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge went up in the 1870's.
Notables buried in the churchyard include Alexander Hamilton, Robert Fulton, John Jacob Astor, and Civil War era diarist George Templeton Strong, the "Northern Mary Chesnut", who wrote in 1868:
"To be a citizen of New York is a disgrace. A domicile on Manhattan Island is a thing to be confessed with apologies and humiliation. The New Yorker belongs to a community worse governed by lower and baser scum than any city in Western Christendom."
Today, it's a much-loved New York institution. During the Trade Center attack, it served as a refuge physically and spiritually, and miraculously only a few old trees on the grounds were damaged.
Lower Manhattan
August 18, 2010