The following statement by the Rev. Samuel Johnson Howard, vicar of the Parish of Trinity Church, addressed the New York City Council Select Committee on Lower Manhattan Redevelopment on Janurary 24, 2003.
Good afternoon, Members of the Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to address this body as you consider the future of Lower Manhattan.
Trinity Parish has been an integral part of Lower Manhattan since 1697. This is our neighborhood, served by Trinity Church and St. Paul’s Chapel, which is part of our parish.
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| Father Howard giving evidence at City Hall in New York. |
St. Paul’s Chapel played a significant role in the recovery effort after September 11. Hundreds of volunteers kept this sanctuary open around the clock for eight months, providing spiritual, emotional and physical care for the workers.
September 11, 2001 was the darkest moment in the 305-year history of our parish. The weeks and months which followed were our finest hour as St. Paul's Chapel was given over entirely to serving and caring for the fire, police, rescue, and construction workers at Ground Zero.
Picture for just a moment Washington’s Pew at St. Paul’s Chapel, where the Father of Our Country prayed after he was inaugurated as our first President in 1789. In this same pew, volunteers organized the podiatry station, massaging the feet of the bone-weary recovery workers. Nearby, others treated and cared for the workers. Hot food and coffee was always available. And, of course, all of the pews were filled with firemen, policemen and others napping, quietly visiting and praying.
Since the one-year anniversary on September 11, 2002, more than 400,000 people have visited St. Paul’s to see our exhibit about our recovery ministry and to pray. Thousands more will come today and tomorrow to this important historic and spiritual site.
We at Trinity and St. Paul’s want to remain as an important part of the future of the World Trade Center site and whatever is developed there.
We ask you and all those involved in deciding the future of this site to consider the solemnity and the history of St. Paul’s and its churchyard. We ask specifically that the northeast corner of Ground Zero, opposite St. Paul’s, be open space, altogether free of structures which would shadow the 200-year old trees and the grass which covers the graves of our forebears. We ask, too, that the sight line from the west and Battery Park City be preserved so that the steeple of St. Paul's, now visible from the west for the first time in decades, may remain visible, inspiring future generations and calling them to worship and to service.
We support plans to recreate the street grid, so Fulton and Dey Streets flow through to an extended Greenwich Street. This will encourage access, help to create the view corridors which I mentioned and better link the existing neighborhood to the new development, especially the memorial site.
To further integrate the new development into the existing neighborhood east of Church Street, we feel that the new buildings along Church Street should include street-level retail and hospitality businesses with buildings of modest height rising above.
Rather than plant the tallest structures right at the Church Street building line, shadowing St. Paul’s and our neighbors, we encourage the location of welcoming retail stores and restaurants at the building line and an increase in the height of the buildings as you move west towards the memorial site.
There is a unique opportunity before us to create along Church Street - a Downtown version of Fifth Avenue with the liveliness of pedestrian traffic flowing from the new transit center. This is the most appropriate place for the retail component, away from the memorial site and integrated into a community which already includes not only St. Paul's Chapel and Trinity Church, but also the Millennium Hilton Hotel, Century 21 and Brooks Brothers.
Such a new retail area would have the open space of Liberty Plaza, hopefully with some new trees, at one end and the St. Paul’s church yard and a green and open space on the north side of the World Trade Center site at the other.
It could become, in our vision, a new Church Street, filled with pedestrian traffic, retail opportunities and open park space, including our own St. Paul's churchyard, accessible through the gates on Church Street. Downtown residents, workers, visitors and shoppers could enjoy the green respite of the churchyard and of open space on the north side of the World Trade Center.
Using these simple and very reasonable design considerations, work on the Church Street side of Ground Zero, with smaller, less controversial buildings, could begin first. New life and activity could be restored to this area even as work proceeds on the more challenging taller buildings and the memorial.
We at Trinity and St. Paul’s saw first hand the unspeakable horror of September 11th – and the ennobling sacrifice and dedication with which thousands of our brothers and sisters met that horror. This great, inspiring work continues today.
Ground Zero is and always will be a special place, a sacred place. But it must not be a separate place. It must be, both physically and spiritually, a part of our city, our neighborhood, our parish. I thank you for taking the special history and stature of our house of worship into consideration as you plan for the future of our downtown neighborhood.
Thank you and may God bless you.
Posted on Trinity News, January 24, 2003.
