1. St. Paul’s Chapel Used to Host a 2:30 AM Service

With the ramping of the press in the early 1900s, some 5,000 New Yorkers were working early into the morning. In an attempt to rival their Catholic competitors who were already doing a late-night mass to compensate for these late-shift workers, the Reverend of St. Paul’s Chapel at the time, Rev. Geer, suggested a 2:30 AM service.

According to the parish website, Geer was always worrying about people’s souls from office women “open to lunch-time seduction” or newsboys selling papers on the streets. These early morning services were vehemently objected by his fellow reverends at St. Paul’s and attendance was consistently low, but the services continued sporadically until Geer’s retirement in 1918.

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