Trinity Church (1735-1872) was an Episcopal church in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
, located on
Summer Street.
[Boston Directory]
1823. It housed Boston's third Anglican congregation. The
Great Fire of 1872 destroyed the church building, and by 1877 the congregation moved into a
new building in
Back Bay
Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and t ...
.
History
1728-1827
When Boston's
King's Chapel
King's Chapel is an American independent Christian unitarian congregation affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association that is "unitarian Christian in theology, Anglican in worship, and congregational in governance." It is housed ...
became overcrowded, some members of the congregation organized a new church beginning in 1728. The newly constructed Trinity Church opened in 1735. The wood building "was 90 feet long, and 60 broad, without any external adornment. It had neither tower nor steeple, nor windows in the lower story of the front. There were 3 entrances in front unprotected by porches. The interior was composed of an arch resting upon Corinthian pillars with handsomely carved and gilded capitals. In the chancel were some paintings, considered very beautiful in their day."
[Samuel Adams Drake. Old landmarks and historic personages of Boston. 1873.]
Ministers included Addington Davenport (1740-1746); William Hooper (1747-1767); William Walter (1767-1776);
Samuel Parker (1779-1804);
John Sylvester John Gardiner (1805-1830).
Parishioners included
Peter Faneuil
Peter Faneuil (June 20, 1700March 3, 1743) was a wealthy American colonial merchant, slave trader and philanthropist who donated Faneuil Hall to Boston.
Childhood
The eldest child of one of three Huguenot brothers who fled France with considera ...
,
Charles Apthorp
Charles Apthorp (1698–1758) was a merchant and slave trader in Boston, colonial Massachusetts. Apthorp managed his import business from Merchants Row, and "in his day he was called the richest man in Boston." He also served in the employ of th ...
, Philip Dumaresq,
William Coffin, Thomas Aston Coffin, Leonard Vassall,
Samuel Hale Parker. In 1789
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
worshipped at the church.
[Bacon's dictionary of Boston. 1886.]
1828-1872
George W. Brimmer designed the second Trinity Church building on Summer Street, completed in 1829. One writer described it as a "massive temple of rough-hewn granite and ponderous square front tower"
[Edwin M Bacon. Washington Street, old and new : a history in narrative form of the changes which this ancient street has undergone since the settlement of Boston. Boston : Macullar Parker Co., 1913.] The "Gothic Revival-style church served as a prototype for many of the earliest New England churches in the Gothic Revival style."
Ministers included
George Washington Doane
George Washington Doane (May 27, 1799 – April 27, 1859) was an American churchman, educator, and the second bishop in the Episcopal Church for the Diocese of New Jersey.
Early life and career
Doane was born in Trenton, New Jersey. He gradu ...
(1830-1833);
Jonathan Wainwright (1833-1838);
Manton Eastburn
Manton Eastburn (1801 in Leeds, England – 1872) was an Episcopal bishop who served as the fourth Bishop of Massachusetts from 1843 till 1872.
Biography
After graduation from Columbia University, he studied at the General Theological Seminary o ...
(1843-1869);
Phillips Brooks
Phillips Brooks (December 13, 1835January 23, 1893) was an American Episcopal clergyman and author, long the Rector of Boston's Trinity Church and briefly Bishop of Massachusetts. He wrote the lyrics of the Christmas hymn, " O Little Town o ...
(1869-1891).
After the fire of 1872 swept through downtown Boston, Trinity Church fell to ruins: "its broken tower and partly crumbled walls presenting the most picturesque ruin of all in that costly conflagration."
By 1877, the congregation moved into its new
Trinity Church building in
Copley Square
Copley Square , named for painter John Singleton Copley, is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Square due to it ...
.
Ministers
* Addington Davenport (1740–1746)
* William Hooper (1747–1767)
* William Walter (1768–1776)
*
Samuel Parker (1779–1804)
*
John Sylvester John Gardiner (1805–1830)
*
George Washington Doane
George Washington Doane (May 27, 1799 – April 27, 1859) was an American churchman, educator, and the second bishop in the Episcopal Church for the Diocese of New Jersey.
Early life and career
Doane was born in Trenton, New Jersey. He gradu ...
(1831–1832)
*
Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright (1833–1838)
*
Manton Eastburn
Manton Eastburn (1801 in Leeds, England – 1872) was an Episcopal bishop who served as the fourth Bishop of Massachusetts from 1843 till 1872.
Biography
After graduation from Columbia University, he studied at the General Theological Seminary o ...
(1842–1868)
*
Phillips Brooks
Phillips Brooks (December 13, 1835January 23, 1893) was an American Episcopal clergyman and author, long the Rector of Boston's Trinity Church and briefly Bishop of Massachusetts. He wrote the lyrics of the Christmas hymn, " O Little Town o ...
(1869–1891)
See also
*
Trinity Church, Boston
Trinity Church in the City of Boston, located in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. The congregation, currently standing at approximately 4,000 households, was founded in 17 ...
References
Image gallery
Image:TrinityChurch ca1828 SummerSt Boston BowerOfTaste.png, The newly constructed Trinity Church building, Boston; illustration published in '' Bower of Taste'', c. 1829
Image:2884595513 TrinityChurch SummerSt.jpg, Summer Street view, 1846
Image:2884595147 TrinityChurch SummerSt.jpg, Summer Street view, 1846
Image:Trinity Church, Summer Street, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.png, Trinity Church on Summer St., after fire of 1872
Image:Trinity Church, Summer Street, by Soule, John P., 1827-1904 2.jpg, Trinity Church on Summer St., after fire of 1872
Image:Trinity Church, Summer Street, by Soule, John P., 1827-1904.jpg, Trinity Church on Summer St., after fire of 1872
Further reading
* John Sylvester John Gardiner. A discourse delivered at Trinity Church, Boston, July 23, 1812 on the day of publick fast in Massachusetts upon the declaration of war against Great-Britain. Boston: Munroe & Francis, 1812.
* John Henry Hopkins. Religion the only safeguard of national prosperity a sermon preached in Trinity Church Boston, December 1, 1831, being the day of annual Thanksgiving. Boston: S.H. Parker, 1831.
* The records of Trinity Church, Boston, 1728-1830. Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1980-1982.
External links
* Boston Public Library
Images of Trinity Church Boston
* Boston Public Library
Item related to Trinity Churchfrom Gleason's Pictorial
* New York Public Library
Item related to Trinity Church
{{Coord, 42, 21, 17.86, N, 71, 3, 35.07, W, type:landmark_region:US-MA, display=title
Former buildings and structures in Boston
18th century in Boston
19th century in Boston
Financial District, Boston
1728 establishments in Massachusetts