St. Paul's Chapel NYC

In the days following the attacks on the World Trade Center of September 11, frantic friends and relatives of those who were unaccounted for created fliers with their loved one's photographs and contact information, which they handed out on streets around Ground Zero or taped to the fences and walls around city hospitals and rescue centers. At St. Paul's Chapel, volunteers turned a small altar at the chapel's entrance into a heart-wrenching memorial by covering it, first with the posters about the missing that were left outside the church, and later with the Mass Cards that were brought here in the weeks and months following the tragedy. Today, the consecrated altar has been returned to its sacramental use and this replica now holds those precious mementos.When St. Paul's Chapel was completed in 1766, it stood in a field some distance from the growing port city to the south. It was built as a "chapel-of-ease" for parishioners who lived far from the primary, or "Mother," church. Today, St. Paul's Chapel is Manhattan's oldest public building in continuous use, and its remaining colonial church. Located directly across from the World Trade Center site, the Episcopal church served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers following the attacks of September 11. St. Paul's Chapel and Graveyard was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1966.