When the Rev. W.H. Weigle assumed the pulpit of the 1665 St. Paul”™s Church in Mount Vernon in 1929, his first sermon was a jaw-dropper: the church needed $300,000; the building was going to you-know-where in a handbasket.
“Clearly, hard times had come to St. Paul”™s by the time he arrived,” said David Osborn, site director of what is now the St. Paul”™s National Historic site. “The neighborhood was changing over to industrialization and he was met by a declining parish.” The finances were declining in lock step. Weigle was a well-established Manhattan minister, whose previous church was known for tending to Episcopalian thespians from Broadway. “In no way did he want to preside over a declining parish.”
The site is also home to the Society of the National Shrine of the Bill of Rights, which partners with the National Park Service to run the staff, its 6.5 acres and buildings.
Weigle”™s first sermon ”“ an appeal for $3.75 million in 2011 dollars ”“ earned coverage in the New York Times. Weigle had conscripted Sara Delano Roosevelt to the cause of saving St. Paul”™s and she in turn conscripted the Times”™ Sulzberger family for support. (Weigle served until 1949.)
To gain secular friends, according to Dick Forliano, who served seven years as chairman of the Society of the National Shrine of the Bill of Rights and who sits on its board of directors today, “What Rev. Weigle did was to connect Eastchester” ”“ the St. Paul”™s churchyard is the old Eastchester Village Green ”“ “with freedom of the press. He overemphasized the link with freedom of the press and he underemphasized the link with freedom of religion. Nobody told any lies, but the meaning may have gotten misconstrued. We have a connection with freedom of the press, but we have a greater connection with freedom of religion.”
John Peter Zenger, the father of freedom of the press, earned his stripes publishing details of the “Election of 1733,” a rigged affair that took place on the Eastchester Village Green. “But it”™s a myth he covered the trial,” said Forliano, who is also president of the Eastchester Historical Society and who taught history for 40 years. “He never set foot in Eastchester.”
By May 1977, the writing was on the wall at St. Paul”™s Church on South Columbus Avenue. The 48”™x 65”™ Colonial masterpiece that had been a field hospital for both Tories and Revolutionaries had dwindled to a congregation of several families, its finances beyond even the most ardent tithers. It was at this time, Forliano said, that a group of locals gathered as the Bill of Rights society and struck a deal, first with the diocese and later with the Park Service, to run it.
In 1980, the Episcopal Diocese of New York, which runs some 200 active parishes between Manhattan and Kingston, sold St. Paul”™s to the federal government. Such a move might seem historically obvious, but at the same time and as part of the same effort to consolidate congregations, the diocese sold its 1844 Church of the Holy Communion in Manhattan for use as a drug rehab center. (It became the Limelight night club in 1983, site of a grisly murder; it”™s now a market.)
In 1992, the Park Service and the society faced a new challenge. Initial enthusiasm for the site was waning and it attracted just a few thousand people per year. The Park Service asked the Bill of Rights society to revisit the historical record under an interpretive theme of “diversity and dissent.” The result, in Forliano”™s words: “A great historic site. Under David (Osborn), we”™re attracting 15,000 people a year now. We rely heavily on David; he does a great job.”
Osborn has run St. Paul”™s for 10 years and says of his job, “I do a lot of grant writing, but on occasion I also pitch in to help with the mowing. If you take a walk around, you”™ll see ”“ there”™s a lot to mow.” His Ph.D. is in American history from the City University of New York.
“There was certainly no shortage of places for Episcopalians to worship,” said Osborn of the move to deconsecrate and sell churches. “This is a big building to run for just a few families.”
But St. Paul”™s across the years had gained powerful friends and ”“ who could doubt it? ”“ seemed to have friends in heavenly places. With help from the Roosevelts ”“ mother Sara and son Franklin in the White House ”“ St. Paul”™s had been named a national historic site in 1943, making available federal dollars for repairs, including needed roof work.
While the neighborhood around the site on South Columbus Avenue would grow more industrial since the cornerstone was laid in 1763, the site itself would remain a lush oasis of American History.
Today, St. Paul”™s runs on $200,000 per year, plus what the Bill of Rights society raises, primarily via its annual historically themed dinner ”“ this May it is the Civil War sesquicentennial. “The dinner and our lectures attract about 70 to 80 people,” Forliano said. “We”™ve brought a lot of attention to the site.”
