The Old Churchyard

A doctor's appointment across the street from a Key to the City lock? Sounds like a recipe for a quick detour!

Trinity Church (not where my doctor practices) is a historic church in the Financial District. The building there today was built in 1846, though the Trinity Church parish goes back to 1698 when the first of three churches was built on the same spot as today's. According to church records, the infamous pirate/privateer Captain William Kidd lent the runner and tackle from his ship to hoist the stones in building the first church. Today's church is no less distinguished. It was the tallest building in NYC until 1890, and served as the welcome beacon to sailors coming up the bay from the Atlantic, along with being one of the most prominent churches in the city's history.

Today the church still sits in its original land chartered property, most of which consists of the Trinity Church Cemetery. The Key to the City opens the gate to the cemetery, although on this particular day Lynn and I found it wide open as tourists and Wall Streeters alike meandered through or ate lunch in the shade.

Walking through this cemetery is like reading a laundry list of NYC street names, signers of the Declaration of Independence, members of the Continental Congresses, and prominent statesmen of the eighteenth century.  Two of the largest cenotaphs are for Robert Fulton and Alexander Hamilton, the former an accomplished inventor and engineer, and the latter, well, Alexander Hamilton.  I especially loved the epitaph on Hamilton's tomb:

ALEXANDER HAMILTON
The CORPORATION of TRINITY CHURCH Has erected this
MONUMENT
In Testimony of their Respect
FOR
The PATRIOT of incorruptible INTEGRITY.

The SOLDIER of approved VALOUR.
The STATESMAN of consummate WISDOM:
Whose TALENTS and VIRTUES will be admired

BY
Grateful Posterity.
Long after this MARBLE shall have mouldered into
DUST
He Died July 12th 1804. Aged 47.

Hamilton's tomb, though I'm unsure whether this was intentional or not, is on the site where a small building stood during his lifetime.  This building was the original home to King's College, which began in the churchyard, though the College had moved to its own independent building in 1760.  Hamilton began studying at King's College in 1774, and so never studied in the building that stood where he now lies.  King's College today is better known as Columbia University, where I also spent my grad school years.  Columbia claims Hamilton as its "most famous alumnus."  Though truth be told, Hamilton began leading a group of students in military drill, and in 1776 they all joined the Revolutionary Army, making him really Columbia's "most famous drop-out."

Nothing like a little walk through history on a mid-summer day.


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