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St. Paul’s, Eastchester
One of the hidden gems of our county is St. Paul’s Church, Eastchester. The church has been within the City of Mt. Vernon since the late 19th century, but was the original town church for Eastchester, situated on the village green. The first church building on the site, a simple wooden structure, was built in 1692. The current structure was built in 1763, with numerous additions and subtractions since that date.
Today it is a fairly simple structure, built of brick and local stone in a colonial Georgian style that’s fairly restrained, especially when compared to more elaborate churches in more important towns such as St. Paul’s Chapel downtown on Broadway (the oldest extant public building in the City of New York) or Christ Church in Philadelphia (the largest city in British North America before the Revolution).
The church has been designated by Congress as the ‘National Shrine of the Bill of Rights’ because it was on the adjacent green that Governor William Cosby denied voting rights to Quakers in 1733, which laid the basis for a mighty brouhaha involving the media. John Peter Zenger published the Governor’s refusal, and was arrested on the charge of ‘seditious libel’. A court with the Governor’s own hand-picked judges could not find Zenger guilt because the alledged libel was actually fact (see the Crown vs. Zenger). It is generally agreed that this was the basis for Freedom of the Press in British North America, and later, with the First Amendment, in the United States.
Also, when the church was being used as a court house, Aaron Burr practised law here. The bell was cast at the Whitechapel foundry in London, still operating today, where the Liberty Bell was cast.
In 1787, George Washington Adams, the son of John Quincy Adams, drowned in the Long Island Sound under mysterious circumstances. His body washed up on the tidal river shore next to St. Paul’s. A church warden discovered the body, removed it to a temporary vault, and notified the family. In appreciation for the church’s kindness, Mrs. John Quincy Adams gifted a silver chalice to St. Paul’s.
In 1932, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt worshipped at St. Paul’s and addressed a crowd of over ten thousand on the Green afterwards.
The church was originally dissenting, but conformed to the Church of England by decree of the Province of New York in 1702, with ministers being sent from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel back in the mother country. During the nineteenth century it fell under the sway of the Oxford movement, with the interior reconstructed in a highly-decorative manner oriented on an altar and chancel. In 1941-42, however, the nave was restored to its 1790’s appeareance, with high box pews centered on a large pulpit, by the firm of Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.
An Episcopal mass in the chancel after the 1942 restoration.
It was an active parish for a long time, from 1692 until 1977 when parish closed and the Episcopal Diocese of New York handed the property over to the Federal Government to be taken care of by the National Parks Service. Today it is St. Paul’s Church National Historic Site with a museum in the old church hall next door.
The National Parks Service kept up the church’s old sign, mostly peeled away, showing a few changes in the service schedule.
The pulpit.
The chancel seen from one of the box pews.
A wider view of the sanctuary.
Some of the names on this plaque are among the founding families of the area. The Pells are those who owned large chunks of southern Westchester. Lord Pell’s manor was Pelham, and he sold the land which is today New Rochelle to the Huguenot refugees led by Jacob Leisler. Stephen Ward’s house and tavern were on the Post Road near Gifford Street where I lived from birth to my fourteenth year.
A view from beneath the gallery.
More pews.
During the 1942 renovation, all the stained glass windows were removed and replaced with square-cut clear glass as would have been the style in the 1790’s. However in 1999, private donors and the National Park Service paid for Rohlf’s to restore one window, a Lafarge no less, and reinstalled it.
A close-up view of the altar in the chancel.
The chancel, altar, and unlit sanctuary lamp.
The plaque reads:
SAINT PAUL’S PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH
This church stands on the Ancient Village Green of Eastchester, a General Training Ground and Election Place in Colonial Days and Enlisting Headquarters for Revolutionary Soldiers.
The First Meeting House, erected on the Green North of this Church 1692-1699, adopted the worship of the Church of England 1702.
This Church, erected 1761-1765, was used as a Military Hospital during the American Revolution; Converted into a Court House 1787; Incorporated 1787; Reopened as a Church 1788; Reincorporated 1795 with the name of “Saint Paul’s Church in the Town of Eastchester” and consecrated 1805.
This Tablet was erected by the Empire State Society, Sons of the American Revolution 1911.
The reason the parish dwindled and eventually closed was because the surrounding neighborhood, the original Eastchester, had vastly changed over the years. From the 1920’s onwards it slowly became a more industrialised area, as can be seen from a 1980’s aerial photo (above). The industrialization of the church’s surrounds is in many ways a tragedy, but one can only hope that sometime in the future the value of this gem will be realised and the neighborhood transformed. By then we will all be dead.
Sources: National Park Service, Library of Congress (Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record)
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Do you remember Ms.Daisy Webb? This wonderful church elder used to give tours of the old church back in the early 1960’s. She kept my companions and I occupied on more than one occassion spinning her tales that were part church history and part ghost story. I can still remember her talking about Anne Hutchinson. What fun we had climbing up to the church bell. The funniest part was we were Catholics, but so enjoyed Ms.Webb that we would spend more time at St. Paul’s than our own church! I would welcome any known commentary about this wonderful woman.
Was this cementary know as Eastchester Cemetary.
I believe my great Great Grandmother was buried there. Is it possible to check this -Margaret Kernstock, died July 1905? She was the Mother of the City Assessor Louis Kernstock.
Ah – Lovely mysterious historic old St Paul’s Church. I grew up in the Kingsbridge Rd area on the Bronx side of the County line.I was born 1944. I began exploring the haunts of this area in the late 40’s with my older sister. Even as a child, I loved this church and felt a deep connection with the area’s beauty and history. Later in the 50’s, I’d ride my bike and read the old grave stones. It pained me greatly to see the continued industrialization of the area and the tearing down of historic Billy Crawford’s Tavern (where I believe Peter Zanger spoke). Much was lost. Thank God at least it became a National Historic Shrine although it is ripped out of it’s original Colonial setting.
The area history that currently interests me the most is the settlements of the early to late 1600’s. I am doing research and am amazed that prior to about 1895, there was no Bronx. The town of Eastchester where the church is located was much bigger and included all of Mt Vernon as well as areas which now are the Bronx. Westchester County extended south to Manhattan – the Bronx was originally in Westchester. The settlers around St Paul’s in the 1600’s were people who fled south from the Mass Bay Colony – first settling in Conn. These included Anne Hutchison and her group as well as the families from Conn who settled the tract Thomas Pell purchased in 1654.
As I understand, Thomas Pell purchased the land from the Siwanoy Indians under the Conn. Crown authorities. New Amsterdam was still Dutch and the Dutch authorities contested his legal right to the land.
As a child I remember reading gravestones at St Paul’s dating to the 1600’s. When I revisited years later, they seemed to be missing. This started me on a recent quest to learn the early history of the Pelham Bay/Eastchester/St Paul’s area — who the 17C settlers were and what was their worship like prior to St Paul’s being changed into an Anglican congregation. When NY became a British Crown Colony, the English governor decreed the Church of England would be the official NY religion. This dispite the fact that the majority of area residents were some form of Dissenter/Calvinist Protestant denomination. They were Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian, Quaker or Puritans who left the theocracy of the Mass Bay Colony. At this time it appears that St Paul’s original congregation was not Anglican – but was changed by government fiat.
I did not realize how accustomed I am to living under the Constitution and Bill of Rights. It is fitting that St Paul’s has become the National Shrine for the Bill of Rights – where our right to worship freely and the government is prevented from establishing any State Church. Confiscation of church property and persecution of non sanctioned religions existed here too and is the reason our founding fathers saw fit to protect our freedom of Religious Conscience!
P.S. note to John Kernstock above: Try contacting Bronx historical/cemetary records because most Eastchester cemetaries are now in the County/Borough of the Bronx. I’ve seen some Eastchester cemetary listings on Westchester historical sites too. You have to look under both Bronx NYC and Westchester because of the annexation about 1895. Even by Margaret’s death in 1905, the Town was still known as Eastchester even though it was in a new County. Also try Mt Vernon records because Mt Vernon was incorporated from Eastchester in the 1890’s. Margaret may be buried at St Paul’s but I don’t believe it’s church yard was ever known as Eastchester cemetary. Good Luck.
Would this have been a Presbyterian church in 1719 when my 5th great grandfather, Nehemiah Veal/Vail was born. He might have been a son of Arthur Vail of Eastchester. I am trying to find his origins. He married a Mary Archer and raised a family in Dutchess Co. NY
COL Gallagher and I from the Old Guard of the City of New York just checked out your article on my family’s
old church.
Nice job.
Jason Pell
My G-G-G-G-G-Grandfather(Moses Hunt)is buried there, as well as other ancestors. G-G-G-G grandparents James and Phebe(Treadwell)Morgan and the list goes on. I don’t want to sound sacreligious, but can photos of the gravestones be photographed? Someday I hope to visit, but don’t see that happening in the near future.Thanks Richard Hunt
I have often passed by this church with my mom. Today I stopped by the Salvation Army next door and decided to check out the church. It’s beautiful. I caught a care taker just in time to find out that they have tours during the week. My mom, niece, daughter and I are going back to learn more about this hidden beauty. I can’t wait to take some photos!
My family attended St. Paul’s Episcopal Church when it was a church from 1971 through it’s closure as a church. Myself, my dad, my mom had died, my sisters and brothers along with other parishioners wept as the Church was dissanctified in our final service and we had to leave. We left and joined St. John’s Parish Church which was renamed, St. John and St. Paul’s and then joined by St. Clements and today are known as St. John Paul and Clement’s.
On November 12, 1988 I was married at St. Paul’s Church after it became a shrine. With the help of the then Curator, a wonderful woman, she helped me to write a respectful letter to allow me to wed there as this was my mother’s dream that all her children marry there. I was the only one that did. On November 12th, some of the guests were the parishioner’s who attended on my behalf but also for the chance of being there once more in a religious setting. I noticed they all sat in the Pew boxes they sat when it was a church, it was wonderful. I have wonderful memories of St. Paul’s Church, the fellowship in the Carriage House after morning worship and when we had our first ever church yard sale, in the early 70’s I think 1973, my mother bought dishes, found in the attic of the Carriage House that I think were very old. I never knew if there was any value of the dishes, I was just a kid, but my mother treausred them, only using on extremely special occasions until she died. There were so many things that the parishioners and others who came to that church yard sale found and bought that were probably very old as well. Fr. Lott, who had the most beautiful voice, and Fr. Sabune, with his African Accent, added so much to the worship, they were the Rectors I remember.
I too am saddened that the area surrounding St. Paul has become so industrialized and it was headed in that direction even in the 70’s when we attended the church. I can still hear the bell ringing and the sound of the organ. I can’t remember the name of the gentleman who played the organ nor the gentleman who faithfully rang the bell on Sunday before and after communion but they were wonderful. My wedding was a joyful time and I just want to thank that wonderful ‘lady’, the curator for helping me to keep my mom’s wish.
My children’s ancestor’s are buried in this cemetery. What a history the church has. It’s beautiful! Thank you for preserving this so that I can pass this on to my children, who now have children of their own. West Coast Lyon family