Why You Should Visit St. Paul's Chapel - Lower Manhattan's First 9-11 Memorial

By Mark Stuart ELLISON

While imperious billionaires bicker over construction of the Ground Zero Memorial, one already exists. It’s St. Paul’s Chapel. The Chapel, a small, unassuming structure located at Broadway and Fulton Street, is a stone’s throw from the World Trade Center's footprints. And the storied history of St. Paul's now includes 9-11.

For eight months following 9-11, over 14,000 people worked 12-hour shifts at St. Paul’s serving meals, making beds, and comforting first responders and other personnel who toiled at Ground Zero. Medical providers worked tirelessly at the Chapel. Between 2,000 and 3,000 meals were served here each day.

Even before 9-11, St. Paul’s generously provided for the needy. Since 1982 the Chapel has had an on-premises shelter which serves up to 10 men at a time and teaches life-skills for up to nine months.

Today St. Paul’s is a stately shrine to the victims and responders of 9-11. Entering the Chapel, the visitor is struck by a plethora of responders’ patches adorning a giant bulletin board. A bobby’s helmet belonging to a member of the British Transport Police stands out. Large, colorful memorial tapestries donated from around the world hang from the ceiling. A photographic exhibit is punctuated by a picture of a cross made by two surviving Tower beams standing in the rubble.

On display is a collection of ordinary personal items used to provide for the thousands sheltered at the Chapel in the months following 9-11. They look unremarkable, but, if carefully preserved, will grow quaint and take on the status of artifacts after many years. A brunette, thirtyish woman softly cries in front of a video featuring a 9-11 memorial speech by Mayor Giuliani and the mellow tones of Irish tenor Ronan Tynan singing “God Bless America”. Dozens quietly move about the exhibits, which include digitized archives. Some pray in the pews.

Perhaps the most meaningful exhibits are the crayon messages scrawled by visitors - to which I felt compelled to make a contribution - and the handwritten letters posted by schoolchildren. A particularly moving one was from Michelle Marshall, 12, of Ironton, Ohio:

Sometimes when I pray,Sometimes when I’m in my bed,Saying my prayers,I pray for the people that did this to us.We are so loving and supportive to the other countries.Sometimes, I just pray for the people who lost loved ones.I lay down in my room praying that nothing else will happen,that they would stop this and the people who are responsible for the attacks. Sometimes I wonder when this will be over.

The letter is followed by crayon drawings of planes hitting the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. St. Paul’s was nearly destroyed by fire twice. The first instance occurred on September 21, 1776, when a Manhattan fire destroyed over 500 buildings. St. Paul’s was saved by dedicated New Yorkers who doused the Chapel all night with buckets of water.

The second occurred on September 11, 2001, when the Chapel’s modest spire was seen overlooking the black smoke emanating from across the street at Ground Zero. With the exception of an early l9th century organ damaged by dust from the Twin Towers, the Chapel was miraculously unscathed.
St. Paul’s is Manhattan’s only colonial-era church. Its 14 glass chandeliers constitute one of the largest private collections of 18th century American crystal works. Outside, on the porch, is the tomb of Gen. Richard Montgomery, the first officer killed in the American Revolution.

Montgomery’s Tomb was the first memorial commissioned by the U.S. government. The Chapel’s two bells were made at the same London foundry that cast the Liberty Bell.

In the north aisle is George Washington’s Pew Box, where the first President prayed right after his inauguration on April 30, 1789. Washington continued to attend services at St. Paul’s for nearly two years until the nation’s capital was relocated from New York to Philadelphia in 1790. And a memorial service was held for Washington at St. Paul’s shortly after his death in 1799.
History continues to be made at St. Paul’s post-9-11. New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani gave his farewell address here on December 27, 2001.

The Chapel’s doors are open during daylight hours. Concerts are held throughout the year. Admission is free.

For those of us who lived through 9-11, St. Paul’s is a comfort to the soul. And it is a welcoming monument on which all Americans can find common ground.

Making memorials reality no easy task

Before 9/11 plan, a Desert Storm monument was in the works
Making memorials reality no easy task

By KEVIN AMERMAN kamerman@leader.net

WILKES-BARRE – More than a month after announcing plans to build a $1.3 million 9/11 memorial in Kirby Park, officials have yet to say how much has been raised for the heavily criticized project.

Raising money for such a monument can be a daunting task. Just ask the group of eight or so people who in 1991 announced plans to construct a $100,000 memorial for Operation Desert Storm.

Fifteen years later, the dwindling group has reached a standstill, with about one-fifth of the desired goal in its account.

“It’s a small valley. How much can people give?” asked Barbara Ryan, who fought in Desert Storm as a Navy Reservist and oversees the Desert Storm Memorial Committee with her husband, Frederick Ryan, a retired Navy veteran.

The nonprofit organization has $20,594 in its account. The Ryans said the designer of the monument, Gerhard Baut of Baut Studios in Swoyersville, recently decided he can draw up a scaled-down version of the monument for about $30,000. But they doubt another $10,000 can be raised.

Frederick Ryan still wants to build something to honor those who served in Desert Storm.
“We still want to do something because a lot of people have invested money in this,” he said.
Although they are set on erecting their proposed monument, the Ryans and others who helped raise that money aren’t supportive of the plan for the 9/11 monument. Many residents have also criticized the plan, causing verbal battles with Wilkes-Barre city council members.
Wilkes-Barre attorney Tom Marsilio, a retired marine who helped the Desert Storm Memorial Committee become a nonprofit organization at no charge and helped raise funds for it, said he agrees that 9/11 affected the whole country, “but $1.3 million is a heck of a lot of money.”
“Personally, I think it’s too excessive. And, whether or not there will be a benefit to the city is a big question,” he said, responding to officials’ claims that the monument would draw people from all over the country to Wilkes-Barre.

Barbara Ryan agreed, saying perhaps raising money for scholarship funds or some other form of assistance for family members of 9/11 victims would be more appropriate.

Frank Carden, a Vietnam and Gulf War veteran who helped raise money for the Desert Storm monument, also said the proposed 9/11 memorial is too expensive and said a plaque for victims of the terrorist attacks might be more fitting.

“There have been so many appropriate ways of either compensating or honoring 9/11 people,” Carden said. “I don’t think we need another memorial.”

While most opponents attack the price, size and proposed location of the 9/11 monument, Carden also criticized its merit, saying memorializing innocent victims is not the same as honoring “a soldier’s life” in which people know they are risking their lives.

“They were at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Carden said. “It can happen to anybody at any time. It can happen to me tomorrow. … It wasn’t like someone who goes into battle every day.”

But officials have said the monument will also honor the emergency crews who put their lives on the line by responding after the attacks and those who fought in war after it.

Dianne Kircher of Forty Fort said she thinks the 9/11 memorial is a good idea, but says the Desert Storm memorial, which she helped raise money for, should be built first.

Judging from the proposed Desert Storm memorial, initial interest is key.

“The first year there was good interest,” said Frederick Ryan. “Then it just started to die.”
Marsilio said fundraising contributions “reached a trickling stage.”

“The brevity and the few number of casualties contributed to the waning interest after the peak,” Marsilio said.

Those with the ability to make the Desert Storm monument a reality didn’t support it, Carden said.

“We did not get much backing from prominent people or people who were well-off in the community,” he said. “Most money was raised through selling flags and T-shirts, and that’s nickel and dime stuff. It’s unfortunate, people who have the biggest stake and who benefit the most often are less supportive. It’s the Joe six-packs of the world (who contribute).”

Original plans for the Desert Storm memorial called for a single pillar several feet high to be placed in the middle of a marble base. It would have been built near the Luzerne County Courthouse.

The 9/11 memorial proposed by the city and county is much larger in price and scope. It would be placed by a pond at Kirby Park and would feature 20 granite pillars – nine on one side and 11 on the other – with names of those who died inscribed on them. The monument would also be surrounded by shrubbery and flags, and a granite pedestal would be placed in the middle describing the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

The man overseeing contributions that come in for the 9/11 memorial, City Administrator J.J. Murphy, couldn’t give even a round figure when asked on Wednesday how much has been raised.

“Frankly, I haven’t done anything with the monument,” Murphy said, stating that he’s been busy with other city priorities such as finalizing a deal to bring wireless Internet to the city and preparing for the construction of the intermodal center.

Murphy said some people have expressed interest in donating money between $500 and $1,000, but he said he hasn’t had a chance to collect it. He said he still believes the projected in feasible.

“We’ll give it our best effort,” he said. “If the public doesn’t want to get behind a project like this, than maybe they don’t.”

Fundraisers for the proposed Desert Storm memorial say they have had their fair share of critics. But most came after they collected the money. There were rumors that the organization cleared much more than it did and people have wondered why nothing has been built and where the money went, Barbara Ryan said.

“There’s not even a question of money missing,” Frederick Ryan said. “We can track almost every penny.”

Although the organization raised more than $50,000, it had to pay for the cost of the T-shirts it sold and for spaces and insurance at fairs and festivals.

“People weren’t looking at what we spent,” Barbara Ryan said, noting that volunteers didn’t even take money out for expenses such as gas. “We had to work really hard and long to get what we got.”

The group lost about $3,000 by placing the money it raised into a liquid asset fund tied in with the stock market, the Ryans said.

“The goal was an extremely noble one, and to get trashed like this was disconcerting,” Marsilio said.

The Ryans, who now live in Bethlehem, say more than half of the original fundraisers have left Luzerne County.

Kevin Amerman, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7218.

Decision Needs to be Made on 9/11 Memorial Names

Decision Needs To Be Made On 9/11 Memorial Names

(AP) NEW YORK Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday that "less is more" when it comes to the sensitive issue of how victims should be identified on the Sept. 11 memorial. "None of us can feel what a relative feels, of somebody lost, but the memorial is for the country, it is for the world, it is for all New Yorkers," Bloomberg said in his first public remarks on the contentious issue since he was named last week to head the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, which is raising money for the memorial and finalizing its design. "We'll have to come to some resolution and if the parties can't resolve it, then I, then the decision maker, the decision has to be made and it will be made." Many family members, supported by city fire and police unions, have lobbied for two years to group names of the nearly 3,000 people killed on Sept. 11, 2001, by where they worked and died, and to list their ages, the company they worked for or the plane they were on next to their names. "What is so wrong with letting people know that the majority of these people died in the prime of their life?" said Edie Lutnick, whose 36-year-old brother, Gary, was among 658 victims from Cantor Fitzgerald. Bloomberg said memorial architect Michael Arad's design may support a more minimalist approach. "I've always been a believer in the less is more, particularly when it comes to things that are trying to encourage you to think," he said. "And that to me is what Michael Arad's design really was all about -- the fact that the voids are there, you've got to think about what was here and why was it taken away from us." Arad proposed listing the victims randomly to show the chaos of the day, but has said he was open to further iscussion. Bloomberg is in charge of fundraising for the memorial, which officials hope to open in 2009.

Bloomberg to lead 9/11 memorial board staff and agencies

Bloomberg to lead 9/11 memorial board Staff and agencies
09 October, 2006
By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer Thu Oct 5, 7:41 PM ET

NEW YORK - The foundation in charge of raising money for a Sept. 11 memorial on Thursday gave control of the struggling effort to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an early critic of the most expensive memorial in U.S. history.

"We are grateful that someone of his stature in so many different roles, from philanthropy to business to the rebuilding itself, will serve as chairman," retiring Chairman John Whitehead said.

Bloomberg was appointed despite opposition from many victims‘ families who alleged that he did not care about their issues and had too often criticized the project.

Just 20 minutes after Bloomberg‘s appointment, American Express announced a $10 million donation. The company had been among several large corporations that withheld donations while the memorial‘s design and budget were revised. Government agencies have pledged up to $445 million more.
___
WTC Memorial Foundation: http://www.buildthememorial.org