Governors Island

During the first seven decades of American military use of Governors Island, there was no post chapel. In 1844, a Columbia College Episcopal Reverend, John M. McVickar, was commissioned post chaplain. His tireless efforts, combined with the sponsorship of his family and Trinity Church in Manhattan, led to the construction of a sizable wood frame chapel in 1847. This Episcopalian chapel was located just behind and to the right of where you are standing. By 1868, the Army elected to stop providing chaplains to the Island, leading Trinity Church to adopt the chapel into its Manhattan parish and provide its own chaplain.

Reverend Edmund Banks Smith arrived in 1904 and energetically spearheaded the construction of a new masonry building to replace the original wood chapel, then in disrepair. The current English Gothic Style church was dedicated in 1906; and, like the original, was named after a soldier and early convert to Christianity, St. Cornelius the Centurion. Trinity Church retains ownership of the chapel to this day. Eventually, facilities for further religious services were made available to Island residents. The Our Lady of the Sea Catholic chapel and a synagogue were established in the historic district and services for Christian Scientists and Jehovah Witnesses were held in existing buildings on the south island.

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