Ten years before the birth of our nation, a tiny stone church was the only structure in a vast field half a mile from the emerging port in lower Manhattan, then a nascent city called New Amsterdam. Since then, St. Paul's Chapel has stood firmly at the epicenter of some of the highest points in American history, as well as the lowest. George Washington worshipped at the chapel after his inauguration in 1789, and during the next two and a half centuries, the church has welcomed U.S. Presidents, world leaders and millions of New Yorkers.

On September 11, 2001, the chapel began a new chapter of spiritual and historical significance. Located directly across from the World Trade Center, St. Paul's miraculously withstood the collapse of the twin towers, shielded from the shower of falling debris by the centuries-old limbs of a massive sycamore. For eight months, the chapel became a physical and spiritual refuge for exhausted recovery workers during the non-stop effort to clear ground zero. It is impossible to visit the chapel's interactive exhibit, 'Unwavering Spirit," and not be deeply moved. The stump of the sycamore tree that saved St. Paul's Chapel on 9/11 is the subject of a bronze sculpture now being created by artist Steve Tobin.