ST. PAUL'S CHAPEL
Broadway between Fulton and Vesey Streets
MAY 25, 1938. ABBOTT FILE 303

St. Paul's Chaple, 1930-33 (CGLI)

St. Paul's Chapel, the oldest extant church in New York, was built in 1766 and modeled on St. Martin's-in-the-Field, London; its steeple was added in 1796. When it was commissioned by Trinity Church, the chapel was considered by many of its parishioners too distant from town; its front lawn, now fenced in by Church Street, extended west all the way to the Hudson River.

Between 1930 and 1933, Abbott photographed the front of the chapel from the Underwood Building, a 12-story structure at 209 Greenwich Street that looks over a row of five-story buildings on Vesey Street. From this elevated position, she minimized perspective distortion and placed the chapel within its urban context. In 1938, Abbott chose a fragmented, distorted, close-up of the back of St. Paul's on Broadway. Behind the church can be seen the New York Telephone Building (1926), four blocks away at 140 West Street.

St. Paul's is a designated landmark and has been cleaned since Abbott's time. Behind the steeple rose 7 World Trade Center (1987), blocking the view to West Street.

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