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Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object name |
Pew |
Place of origin |
New York, New York |
Materials and techniques |
wood, likely mahogany |
Physical description |
Pew railing from North Dutch Church, corner of Fulton and William Streets, New York City. |
Past exhibit |
Revolution and the City |
Current exhibit |
Path to Liberty: The Emergence of a Nation |
Gallery label |
From Revolution and the City exhibit: '"The North Dutch Church was the first Church with English language services of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church of New York. The corner stone was laid in 1767 by Isaac Roosevelt, great-great-grandfather of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. During New York's British occupation in 1776 the North Dutch Church was converted into a prison. It held roughly 800 American soldiers captured in the Battle of Long Island and at Fort Washington. In 1780 John Paulding, recently escaped from the North Dutch Church, led the capture of Major Andre and prevented General Benedict Arnold from handing West Point to the British. In 1857 Jeremiah Lanphier started a series of noon prayer meetings in the Church's Consistory building which sparked the "Fulton Street Revival" in New York and surrounding areas. By the time of its demolition in 1875, St. Paul's Chapel was the only other church surviving from the time of the Revolutionary War. This railing balustrade most likely dates to the renovation and rededication of the North Dutch Church after British evacuation in 1783. Most references suggest that all pews were turned into firewood during the British prison conversion. The labels on the pew railing claim that the North Dutch Church was used as a riding school for the British Cavalry, but this fate is attributed exclusively to the Middle Dutch Church which was on Nassau and Cedar Streets 1731-1882." Path to Liberty: The Emergence of a Nation (2025): North Dutch Church was converted to a prison when the British seized control of New York City. It held roughly 800 American soldiers captured at the Battles of Long Island and Fort Washington. Although the labels on the pew railing claim that the North Dutch Church was used as a riding school for the British Cavalry, this fate is attributed exclusively to the Middle Dutch Church which was on Nassau and Cedar Streets 1731-1882. This railing balustrade most likely dates to the renovation and rededication of the North Dutch Church after British evacuation in 1783. Most references suggest that all pews were turned into firewood during the British prison conversion. Churches were not only places of religious significance but also centers of community life for both rebel and loyalist colonists. Turning their sacred sites into prisons filled with diseased and suffering captives would have been a constant and repulsive reminder of the brutalities of war. |
Catalogue number |
1875.01.001 |
Collection name |
Historical Artifacts |
People |
Lanphier, Jeremiah |
Subjects and places |
New York USA |