St. Paul's Chapel

The year is 1789, and America's first president kneels in prayer just steps from where you stand, his hand still trembling from taking the oath of office at Federal Hall moments earlier. George Washington chose this very chapel for his inaugural service, claiming a canopied pew that still bears witness to that sacred moment in American history. You're standing before St. Paul's Chapel at 209 Broadway, Manhattan's oldest surviving church building, erected in 1766 when this corner of New York was considered the remote countryside. The Scottish architect Thomas McBean designed this Georgian masterpiece to face the Hudson River, which once lapped at today's Greenwich Street, forcing him to add that elegant east portico behind you as a reluctant nod to the bustling Broadway traffic. Look closely at those rough-hewn Manhattan schist stones forming the walls... they survived what a quarter of the city could not. When the Great Fire of 1776 consumed nearly half of Manhattan, a desperate bucket brigade formed a human chain from the Hudson River to this very roof, saving the chapel while Trinity Church burned to ashes just blocks away. Step inside to discover fourteen original Waterford crystal chandeliers from 1802, still casting their golden light over the nave where Washington worshipped for over a year. Near his reconstructed pew hangs an extraordinary painting showing the Great Seal of the United States... but with Benjamin Franklin's preferred turkey instead of the bald eagle, a delightful quirk of early American symbolism. This little chapel that once towered as New York's tallest building now stands humbly among skyscrapers, yet it endures as Broadway's most sacred survivor.