The doors of Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church in Brooklyn Heights are from the dining room of the sunken French luxury ocean liner Normandie. In 1945 the church purchased the bronze doors at auction.

The Normandie was launched in 1935 as the largest and fastest luxury liner in the world, but ended up being a commercial failure. The boat was actually seized by the U.S. Navy in 1941 and was in the process of being converted into the troopship USS Lafayette when it was destroyed by fire in its berth in the Hudson River. The boat was raised and scrapped in 1946, but before it sank, many of the furnishings had been salvaged.

The bronze medallions on the doors depict Norman castles, the liner Isle de France, the Cathedral of St. Louis, a convent in Cherbourg, a street scene with the Cathedral of Caen, the Basilica of St. Therese, and one unknown edifice.

The church also owns the Captain’s table from the Normandie, which is used as a dining room table in the rectory.

The church building, on the corner of Remsen and Henry streets, was built in 1844-46 as the Church of the Pilgrims by the architect Richard Upjohn, who also designed Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan and Grace Church in Brooklyn Heights.

Church of the Pilgrims merged with Plymouth Church on Orange Street in 1934 and Our Lady of Lebanon moved into the church in 1944.

— P. Neidl

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