Swirling curtains of translucent silk smoke pour down in cones of light that break the darkness inside the 100-year-old St. Cornelius chapel at the end of Colonel's Row. Anthony McCall's light sculpture, Between You and I, is this summer's imaginative reuse of space where Island military families - and prisoners of war - once worshiped.
Trinity Church in Manhattan built a chapel of wood in 1846, replaced it with today's Gothic stone soon after, and named it for the sainted Roman centurion, known as the first Gentile to convert to the Christian faith.
Years ago prisoners of war who were held in Castle Williams were issued passes to attend Sunday services, but this liberty was abruptly curtailed when the Army discovered them using it to mingle with their sweethearts. Thereafter, according to the New York Times, they were marched to assigned pews and ordered to maintain "eyes front." One Sunday a prisoner, overcome with passion, stood and joined his wife, protesting his rights.
Love rang true for another couple ten years later when Lieutenant Lawrence Sperry, an Army aviator on overnight leave, flew his fiancée from an airfield on Long Island to a landing in front of the chapel. There they wed and flew off again, man and wife.
Today St. Cornelius, the only privately owned building on the island, has become a venue for all sorts of imaginative ideas.
Years ago prisoners of war who were held in Castle Williams were issued passes to attend Sunday services, but this liberty was abruptly curtailed when the Army discovered them using it to mingle with their sweethearts. Thereafter, according to the New York Times, they were marched to assigned pews and ordered to maintain "eyes front." One Sunday a prisoner, overcome with passion, stood and joined his wife, protesting his rights.
Love rang true for another couple ten years later when Lieutenant Lawrence Sperry, an Army aviator on overnight leave, flew his fiancée from an airfield on Long Island to a landing in front of the chapel. There they wed and flew off again, man and wife.
Today St. Cornelius, the only privately owned building on the island, has become a venue for all sorts of imaginative ideas.