Architecture
The church's tripartite facade evokes the massive trapezoidal pylons of Egyptian temples. The deep cornice is crested with a crenelation of blubber spades.
The minister's dedicatory sermon made clear that the congregation's intention in erecting an Egyptian style building was to symbolize Solomon's Temple.
The foyer features trapezoidal Egyptian Revival doors. The original bell is preserved in the narthex. It was taken out and rung for the building's 100th anniversary in 1944, The church also celebrated the anniversary of the building by putting on a grand historical pageant in the costumes of the 1840s. Appropriately, with many local boys stationed overseas, they sang a song known to have been sung when many local men left for the California gold fields in 1849: "Star of Peace to Wanderers Weary." The service was broadcast over the Voice of America as an example of the Four Freedoms.
The interior of the sanctuary, however, is entirely in ornate Greek Revival style. It is spacious, with a capacity to seat 800. The pulpit is framed by a pair of pilasters and a pair of Corinthian columns that rise over 50 feet to a coffered ceiling. Trompe-l'œil behind the pulpit gives the impression of a curved wall. The old-fashioned box pews have Cuban mahogany railings. Many have hand-engraved, 19th century silver nameplates on the doors. Fluted columns support galleries on each side of the sanctuary. The very fine coffered ceiling is supported from a central beam, eliminating the need for supporting columns. It is edged with egg-and-dart molding.
A fence along Union Street is built with Egyptian obelisk-shaped fence posts. It is a modern copy of the original fence, removed in the 1880s. The fence was an important part of Lafever's original plan to replicate Solomon's Temple in Egyptian style. The plan of the Temple calls for a forecourt, to precede two great pillars named Boaz and Jachin before the worshipers passed into the sanctuary. The fence was supposed to mark out the forecourt, and the doorway is framed by two enormous pylons representing Boaz and Jachin.
Read more about this topic: Old Whaler's Church (Sag Harbor)
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