This spring I shortened a church pew for one of my wife's friends. This pew was originally twice as long, but now it is a much more manageable size for their home.
I've shortened several church pews in my lifetime and the process is always identical no matter the style of the pew. This one is set up on sawhorses in the street outside the making bank!
Remove the middle
All Church pews seem to be made the same, no matter the age. If you can carefully remove an end, you can shorten the seat, then reattach the end panel!
On this pew, All I had to do was to remove the middle, then remove an end, and reattach it to the seat. If you are careful as you take the pew ends off, they should reattach fairly easily. Every pew I've ever taken apart has had a seat pocket dado ed into the end. This means when you go to reattach it, it's a fairly straightforward process. If I would have been thinking I would've taken pictures of the actual work, or maybe even a quick video. Instead, you can see from the picture that I reattached the seat support from the middle, right where the old hymnal rack used to be.
I love taking something like this apart and reattaching it (Except for all the dried gum of course) because I imagine how much care was taken not only when this was built, but I think of how many families sat on this seat... How many lives were changed from fantastic sermons that were heard while sitting here... or maybe how many sleepy eyed moments were endured from "not-so-awesome" sermons... Either way, what a great way to honor those memories by making new use of a pew in your home!