Historic Pelham: Huguenot Memorial Presbyterian Church Migrated to a "Free Pew" Seating System in 1919

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It may seem odd to some, but scholars have devoted much effort to studying the history of the pew, the evolution of that seating arrangement, and the impact of that seating arrangement on the social hierarchy of churches in America and elsewhere. It turns out that even as late as the early to mid-twentieth century, it was still common practice in Anglican, Catholic and Presbyterian churches to rent pews in churches to families or individual as a way to raise revenue to support the church. There were, of course, myriad versions of such pew "rents." For example, in some churches pews were assigned based on the amounts that a family or individual donated or pledged to donate to the church, with higher donations warranting assignment of pews closer to the pulpit. Other churches assigned pews to members of the congregation, leaving open pew space available for visitors.

Plan of Pews in St. Paul's Church, Eastchester, New York 1790.
Source: Coffey, William Samuel, Commemorative Discourse Delivered
at the Centennial Anniversary of the Erection and the Sixtieth of the
Consecration of St. Paul's Church, East Chester, West Chester Co., N.Y.,
October 24th, 1865, p. 43 (NY, NY: Perris & Browne, 1866). To Read More
About the 1790 Pew Diagram of St. Paul's Church, see:
Wed., Aug. 15, 2007: Plan of Pews in St. Paul's Church, 1790.

From the opening of the Little Red Church, the first sanctuary of today's Huguenot Memorial Presbyterian Church that stood where today's sanctuary stands at Four Corners, pews were assigned to members of the congregation although no "rent" or donation was required. As the size of the congregation outgrew the little church, assigned pew space virtually crowded out free pew space and a decision was made to build a larger sanctuary.

The cornerstone for that larger sanctuary was laid on June 10, 1917. Only a few months after that larger sanctuary first opened, however, the church was so crowded on Sundays that it became necessary, for the first time in the history of the church, to abandon the pew assignment system and resort to a "free pew" system where any available open seat was available to anyone who entered the church.

Today's Historic Pelham Blog posting transcribes a brief article published in 1919 that described the church's transition to the free pew seating system. The transcription that appears below is followed by a citation to its source.