borhood. In spite of the fresh coats of paint bestowed upon St. Paul's, and the excellent repair in which it is kept, it has a very venerable appearance, and we believe it is the oldest building in Broadway with one exception. The grand old trees in the churchyard, which are probably coeval with it, are very fitting companions for it. The building of St. Paul's chapel was commenced in 1763, and finished in 1766. It was opened on the 30th of October, 1766; and his excellency Sir Henry Moore expressed a desire of introducing in it a band of music, which request was granted, on the condition that the band should only join in such part of the service as was usual and customary in such cases, and that no other pieces of music

should be allowed but such only as were adapted to the service of the church on such solemn occasions. The inauguration of Washington, as President of the United States, took place, as is well known, at the City Hall. After the ceremonial was over, the general retired, with the civil and military officers in attendance, to St. Paul's Chapel, in order to unite with them in such religious services as were appropriate to the occasion. And here also he frequently received the holy communion."*

The spire of St. Paul's, a partial copy from one of Wren's, is a great ornament to our city; and, together with the spire of St. John's, which we have been unable to have engraved in season, deserves a prominent place in any critical notice of New-York church edifices. The tower is placed at the west end of the church, the entrance being at the east. It is built of wood, and painted brown to imitate stone, the same old story, which a man gets so heartily sick of in examining the architecture of New-York, that he can hardly find words strong enough to express his vexation. The body of the

church is of stone or brick stuccoed, on the exterior colored brown, and marked off in lines, to give it the appearance of being built of small blocks of rough stone, The principal porch on Broadway, and the rear porch in the west, with the pediments, together with the cornice and its mouldings are of wood, with stone columns, painted, and sanded. The principal porch, we may add, is very clumsy, and violates all rules of architectural propriety. Thus we have a church dedicated to the worship of a God of Truth, whose ministers declare that he will cast into Hell every thing that loveth or maketh a lie, in which not one of its outward parts is what it pretends to be, but purposes to be something better, more solid, and more costly than it is.

The interior of this chapel is highly interesting, not for its architectural beauty, of which it has little, but for its oldfashioned appearance, and the hints it gives us of the simple tastes and moderate ideas of splendor which belonged to our ancestors. The white pillars-we rejoice that no modern hands have framed

them-and thus made the inside as false as the outside the odd and ugly bits of broken entablature which spoil them, the queer chandeliers of glass, the pulpit with its Damoclean sounding-board, the exceedingly accurate representation of the thunder and lightning on Mount Sinai accompanying the giving of the Law, all these things will suffice to make a visit to the church very interesting, and we hope no Vandal will presume to alter the church in any particular, until time shall with his destroying finger first have given the sign. Farther up Broadway "the church of the Divine Unity." formerly Unita

rian, now Universalist, astonishes and amuses us. As seen from Broadway, it is in truth nothing but the front door to a very long and gloomy entry which runs back to the real church-a very large building, full of pretence and cheap expedients, whose rear is on Crosby-street. Exteriorly, the true church building is nothing. A very blank series of unpainted brick walls, innocent of all deception, hardly prepare the beholder's mind for the painted splendors of plaster and pencil, and the black walnut wainscoting, and beautifully carved pulpit he will find within.

The Church of the Divine Unity was built by the first Congregationalist society in New-York, which formerly worshipped in Chambers-street, in the small church which stood in the spot now occupied by the Savings' Bank.

The meeting-house of the First Baptist Church in Broome-street, was erected in the year 1841, from the designs of Mr. Lafever. It is built of rough, gray stone, having two large octagonal towers at the angles of the south front, and two small turrets on the same front, running up the sides of a very elaborate perpendicular window. The windows in the sides are square-headed, and very simple; the towers, the gables, and the sides of the building are battlemented; but, notwithstanding the embattlements, every thing about, and within the holy edifice

wears an aspect of peace and good will. It is not among our best specimens of Gothic, but it is a well built and commodious edifice, and one of the finest of the Baptist meeting-houses.

The Church of the Holy Redeemer, (R. Catholic,) is a novelty amid the universal display of pseudo-Gothic architecture, which meets our eye in every portion of the city. We have understood that it is the first work of a young architect, Mr. Walsh, who certainly shows some feeling for picturesque effect. The tower looks well from a distance, and, we are told, has a peculiarly striking appearance from Brooklyn and the East River. Built of shabby materials, and, we suppose, intended to be stuccoed, it is a wretched affair when closely inspected. We think the interior the very ugliest, most trashy piece of tinsel and

bad taste we ever saw. Every thing is of the most impoverished description; we should hardly be justified in making a jeer at poverty; but when it is coupled with extravagant pretension, what else remains? Here we have an immense church which must have cost a great sum of money, its blue roof blazing with tarnished brass stars, the rest of the interior a mass of dull white plaster, the high altar a heap of wretched gew-gaws. But the tower, as we have said, has quite a pleasant effect when seen from a distance, where the detail escapes the eye, and indeed the rear of the building forms a very agreeable mass, although, judging from the exterior ornaments and the whole interior, we should imagine this excellence an accident.

We are informed that Archbishop Hughes intends erecting a very large and costly cathedral in the coming spring. That in Mott-street was begun in 1809, but was not consecrated till 1815. The original building was of solid stone stuccoed. It was 120 feet long, but in 1842, an addition of 35 feet was made in order to afford a new Sanctuary and proper sacristies. The cost of the whole was $150,000. The name of the original architect is un

known, but the addition mentioned above was designed by Mr. Rodrique. The cathedral is a very ugly building, as the cut will show. The pediment of the east front has never been approached in the world in desperate deformity.

The Church of the Messiah was among the earliest endeavors made in this city to attain unto the sublimity of the Gothic Cathedral of Europe. Who designed it we do not know-we trust that he has repented of his deed-but we well remember the praise that the fearful object drew forth when it was first built. We remember the astonishment of elderly ladies and gentlemen, and the contemplative stare of "we children" at the masterly frescoes, "fac-similes, sir, from Westminster Abbey!" which adorn the east end and the ceiling. We remember the dumb astonishment with which we gazed at the mahogany miracles yclept severally a pulpit and organ, which set the carpenters into an envious frenzy. We remember all these things, and we sigh as we find that an intelligent audience still holds the church, and gazes year after year at these poor attempts, without the slightest qualms of conscience, or the slightest apparent symptoms of an outraged taste.

Calvary.

The exterior with its staring, useless tower, its very ugly and unmeaning window over the principal entrance, and its side entrance, half door and half window, are merely accessory pieces of ill taste, which entirely correspond with the remainder of the building.

"Grace Church, on Broadway, NewYork, is a sparkling specimen, on a small scale, of a cathedral with transept in the style of Gothic prevailing on the Europepean continent about the commencement of the fifteenth century, the early Flamboyant." We quote from Mr. Robert Dale Owen's "Hints on the Architecture

of Public Buildings." We would not on any account pretend to differ from so learned an authority; but if we may offer a slight paraphrase on an old and respectable proverb-we would beg to propose "all that flams* is not Flamboyant." Grace Church is no credit to the architect who built it, but it commands the whole sweep of Broadway, and makes a picturesque termination of the view from the lower part. The interior is like a poor kaleidoscope. For a Protestant church what could be more absurd than this interior; a tawdry imitation in lath and plaster of bits of

in

genuine
work
stone and
marble.

The Church
of the Puri-
tans is a
white mar-
ble edifice.

"an exam

ple," to

quote again from Mr. Owen. "without much embellishing ornament of the later Norman or Lombard." It is of mar

ble, one side, and the rear of the church being of brick plastered. The architect is the same who designed Grace-Mr. James Renwick, Jr.

The Church of the Annunciation, in Fourteenth-street, is built of gray free stone with a slated spire. It is noticeable for nothing unless it be the entire absence of elegance which characterizes it, a want however, in which it is fully equalled by many other ecclesiastical structures in the city.

Our cuts of St. George's Church and its interior do not do that admirable building justice. It is the most chastely designed