New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-11-24
ELIMINATING PEW DOORS.
MODERN CHURCHES WITHOUT THEM
OLD CONGREGATIONS STILL
CLING TO THEM.

Why are not the doors to pews in churches II
this city which still them removed when Il is
apparent at least TO the average layman that they
may be source of danger In panic? A Tribune
reporter yesterday received various this
question
The Rev Percy Stckney Grant. rector OF the
Church Of the Ascension, said the reasons why pew
doors not abandoned at his church were
'Iooks and tradition"
''In making this church free IN 1SS3,- Mr.. Grant
to say. 'It undesirable to make the
step disagreeable than could be helped to
the old parishioners who had been generous enough
surrender their pews at considerable sacrifice
of money. habit and prejudice. Therefore IL was
thought a non-essential to the doors. espe-
cially the doors of the pews remained open till
they full. and had property rights
which could be enforced by a closed door. In
church. too pretensions to interior beauty,
the doors could not be taken off OF pews designed
to have doors without giving awkward and ugly
appearance to them.
There is more danger. In my opinion in pews
with doors than there is in the seats OF the aver
age theatre in Of a panic. and not so much,
most of the aisIes OF a theatre not so broad
the aisles OF church. and church is on the
ground floor having easy exits. Churches. more
over. have most of their services in the daytime,
and consequently in little danger from fire.
TT ought to be said, nevertheless, that If we
changed the seating of the church should have
pews without doors, and that is a matter Of ex
pense and interior alteration that we have not
taken up Many people ike the snuSuSSS OF JhS
pew door-something which, it were, tucks
them UP. If I were building church nowadays,
I would build with mosaic or marble floor.
with light. open pews and with little more than
comfortable benches.
pew DOORS however. may sometimes be awk-
ward when a funeral is in progress, and those IN
the procession run against open door or two.
I agree that ii would be best not to have pew
doors. and it is also true that churches as rule
not being built nowadays with pew doors. A
NJ freedom prevails regarding the
use of the pews."
At Grace Church, OF which the Rev. DR.. William
R. Huntington is rector, his assistant, the Rev.
Mr.. Carey. said that while pew doors were used in
the church. the aisles were wide and the doors
opened easily Some complaints had been heard
from persons who attended the free services of the
church. but the parishioners felt that to remove
the doors would result in Disagreement OF the
pews and would require the acquisition of new set
Of pews- Most OF the parishioners were conndent
had no disposition to make any change
A. St Marks Church the Rev- RE h oS W;
and affectIonate interest attached to the church
ago. everything connected with the church was
preserved as carefully as possible Nobody ever
which had been there SO many years and were
other things that belonged to old St Marks
St Bartholomews Church. OF which the Rev.
for quarter of century or more, and while the
'front.' OF the church ana the vesgo9!e are oei9g re-
terday, would remain unchanged The question OF
st. Bartholomew
At the vestry ONCE of Trinity Church yesterday.
g prominent official of the corporation said:
1T is all of a generation since the doors were
taken Off the pews In Trinity Church One reason
that account of the great crowds that at
tended the church they interfered with the ready
passage OF people in and out. Another reason was
that II thought not right that the pews should
be closed with doors. In olden times some parish
toner's used lock the doors of their pews. Many
years ago pews were sold when a church was built,
and the owners OF the pews paid ground rent In
that way they got tho idea that they owned the
pews exclusively they owned their own
houses The crowds, however, did not easily pass
out of the church. and in time It was thought best
to remove the pew doors from Trinity Church
Trinity Chapel, in Twenty-hfth-st-. was opened
for service in 1855 but doors were never placed on
its pews st. Pauls and St Johns chapels. how
ever. were built with pew doors. but when they
overhauled and repaired. thirty forty years
ago. the pew doors taken or. Afterward
Trinity Church built the mission chapels Of st.
Chrysostom and St. Augustine without any pew
doors and In the ten years since St Agnes's was
opened, in Ntnety-second-St-. no doors have been
placed on the pews There are now no doors on
TALLY no pew doors in about eighty Episcopal
churches in this city, and the movement nova
days in building churches is IN the direction OF
having doors on pews-