Interior View of the Floating Church of Our Saviour for Seamen, New York
Lithographer George Endicott, New York American
Architect Charles M. Simonson American
Interior painted by H. & O. Ficht American
Not on view
This print depicts the interior of a church building floating on the water (New York City's East River). As the inscribed title and caption make clear, the floating church was built to serve seamen, who arrived in increasing numbers as New York was becoming the world's busiest port.
In this view of the floating church's Gothic Revival interior, there are rows of empty pews. The ceiling is vaulted and there are four large windows on each side. In the central background, the altar (featuring an anchor) is flanked by two doors -- all beneath ornate Gothic arches. Four figures (shown from behind) are in the foreground: at left, a man stands, while nearby, another is seated in a pew; at right, a couple (the woman wearing a bonnet) stands behind the rows of pews. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has another print (done the same year) of the floating church's interior, showing it without any pews installed.
This Floating Church of Our Saviour was built upon the hull of a disused ferry boat; the text in the bottom margin indicates the builder was Charles M. Simonson. As the title also make clear, the church was commissioned by the Young Men's Church Missionary Society of New York, which was affiliated with the Episcopal Church, which solicited funds to cover the construction costs. It was consecrated on February 15, 1844. The following day, "The Evening Post" (a New York City newspaper) announced it was open "for worship." For a time, it was moored at Whitehall Slip (on the tip of Manhattan), then it was moved to Pike Street pier on the East River (near where the Manhattan Bridge is today). Publications of the day reported that congregations wished to eliminate the unease sailors might feel worshipping in churches on land in a strange city, and they wanted sailors ("sons of the sea"), when worshipping in floating church, to feel more at home. On Sunday mornings, more than 150 worshippers often assembled in the floating church's spacious interior (which also accommodated an organ).
