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Please be advised: Slide Hill is temporarily closed for planned maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

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ISLAND ARCHIVES: A Bi-Week­ly Look at Gov­er­nors Islands Pic­turesque Past

Jun 17, 2010 5:55 pm

Pho­to Cour­tesy of NPS

In the mid 1800s it was not stan­dard prac­tice for the Army to con­struct church­es on their bases. How­ev­er, the chap­lain for the Island, Colum­bia Col­lege Epis­co­pal Rev­erend, John M. McVickar, was a tire­less advo­cate for build­ing a chapel and with funds from his fam­i­ly and friends and from Trin­i­ty parish, a chapel was erect­ed in 1847. 

From Gov­er­nors Island: Its Mil­i­tary His­to­ry Under Three Flags by Rev­erend Edmund Banks Smith Chap­lain of Gov­er­nors Island1904-1924

This charm­ing lit­tle chapel served the Island well for almost 60 years, at which point due to its advanced dete­ri­o­ra­tion, Trin­i­ty decid­ed to build the new St. Cor­nelius the Cen­tu­ri­on Chapel in 1905. The new chapel is impos­ing with its lime­stone struc­ture, neo-Goth­ic detail and splen­did stained glass and it is a love­ly part of the Island envi­ron­ment. Though we love the cur­rent chapel, we’re tak­ing this oppor­tu­ni­ty to hon­or its mod­est pre­de­ces­sor (and the hap­py graz­ing cow too). Except­ing a decade at the end of the last cen­tu­ry when the Coast Guard owned St. Cor­nelius, the Chapel has been owned and main­tained by Trin­i­ty Parish. 

The for­mer Chapel would have been in the fore­ground of this picture.
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