Trinity High School is a

public high school A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

on a hilltop overlooking

Washington, Pennsylvania Washington, also known as Little Washington to distinguish it from the District of Columbia, is a city in Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. The population was 13,176 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 censu ...

, United States. Its bell tower has been a landmark in Washington County for over a century. It is designated as a historic public landmark by the

Washington County History & Landmarks Foundation Washington County History & Landmarks Foundation is a Non-profit organization, non-profit educational institution in Washington, Pennsylvania, United States. Its purpose is to encourage and assist the preservation of historic structures in Washin ...

History

Spring Hill

The historic section of the school was once Trinity Hall School for Boys that operated from 1879 to 1906. The historic school grounds in North Franklin Township date back to the 1850s when Joseph McKnight built a home on top of a hill overlooking the then-borough of

. This twenty-five room Italianate mansion called Spring Hill now functions as the district's administrative offices connected to Trinity High School. Spring Hill was purchased by William Smith, a prominent Washington dry goods merchant, as the new home for his son. The Smith family hired Boston-based landscape artist

Robert Morris Copeland Robert Morris Copeland Sr. (December 11, 1830 – March 28, 1874) was a landscape architecture, landscape architect, city planning, town planner and Union Army officer in the American Civil War. Along with his partner Horace Cleveland, H. W. S. Cl ...

to prepare the grounds along Catfish Creek before it was occupied by William Wrenshaw Smith and his wife Emma Willard McKennan Smith. Wrenshaw Smith was a cousin to Julia Dent, wife of President

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...

. Wrenshaw Smith also served as Grant's aide-de-camp during the Civil War and Grant visited the Spring Hill mansion on multiple occasions.

Trinity Hall School for Boys

William Wrenshaw Smith was a devout

Episcopalian Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protes ...

and longtime vestryman at Trinity Episcopal Church, then located on Beau Street near Washington and Jefferson College. During the 1860s, Smith worked alongside John Barrett Kerfoot, newly elected Bishop of Pittsburgh, to create a boys’ school following the curricular model of famed priest-educator

William Augustus Muhlenberg William Augustus Muhlenberg (September 16, 1796April 8, 1877) was an Episcopal clergyman and educator. Muhlenberg is considered the father of church schools in the United States. An early exponent of the Social Gospel, he founded St. Luke's Hos ...

. In this model, “the school was to be like a large family with a priest as rector serving as father-figure ''in loco parentis''.” Trinity Hall operated from 1870 to 1906 attracting members of prominent regional families including Heinz, Carnegie, Kammerer, and LeMoyne along with a grandson of President Grant. In 1883, Trinity School for Boys began adopting elements of

Muscular Christianity Muscular Christianity is a religious movement that originated in England in the mid-19th century, characterized by a belief in patriotic duty, discipline, self-sacrifice, masculinity, and the moral and physical beauty of Athletics (physical cultur ...

. This included a “military department” for purposes of exercise and a more generic Protestant Christianity in place of Muhlenberg's strictly Episcopalian church school model. Sometimes this leads to overemphasis on the military nature of the school and mistaken conclusions that Trinity Hall was a strict military academy.Crompton, Janice
"SUPERINTENDENT PUSHES FOR TRINITY HALL RESTORATION"
''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', November 29, 1998. Accessed July 31, 2007. Various Episcopal priests served as school rector until the 1890s when patron William Wrenshaw Smith became lay rector, a change possibly due to declining enrollment and revenue. Trinity Hall closed in 1906, two years after Smith's death.

Trinity Hall becomes Trinity High

Trinity Hall, a Smith family property, stood vacant for nearly two decades. In 1922, it was unsuccessfully considered as a site for relocating

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

-affiliated

Washington Female Seminary The Washington Female Seminary was a Presbyterian seminary for women operating from 1836 to 1948 in Washington, Pennsylvania. During the 19th century, it was "one of the best known and most noted institutions of its kind in the state". History ...

. Then in 1925 the townships of Amwell, Canton, North Franklin, and South Strabane purchased the Trinity Hall property to repurpose as a joint public high school. The sale nearly fell through. Amwell Township's secretary refused to sign documents until forced to do so by the

Pennsylvania Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It began in 1684 as the Provincial Court, and casual references to it as the "Supreme Court" of Pennsylvania were made offici ...

. The classroom block of Trinity Hall was used from 1883 until 2004. It was demolished in 2006. The Spring Hill section of Trinity Hall continues to serve as offices for Trinity Area School District. Today, Trinity is a modern public school housing approximately 1,279 students in grades 9–12 on a campus-style setting. Trinity Area School District maintains a small Trinity Hall Museum open by appointment only.

Activities and athletics

Trinity High School offers a wide variety of extracurricular activities and sports. Football, baseball, basketball, soccer, cross-country, track, wrestling, volleyball, golf, rifle, lacrosse, ice hockey, swimming, softball, tennis, and cheerleading are available at Trinity. They are in the WPIAL AAA and AAAA divisions for their sports. The

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

PIHL , Trinity Ice Hockey Club
/ref> teams compete in the PIHL Open Division.

Notable alumni

* Abraham Higginbotham, actor, comedian, and TV producer * Charles Hoyes, actor *

Jesse William Lazear Jesse William Lazear (May 2, 1866 – September 25, 1900) was an American physician. In 1900, he deliberately allowed a mosquito to bite him to prove his hypothesis that mosquitoes were the vector for yellow fever transmission. He contracted the ...

, yellow fever researcher *

Joseph Albert Walker Joseph Albert Walker (February 20, 1921 – June 8, 1966) (Capt, USAF) was an American World War II pilot, experimental physicist, NASA test pilot, and astronaut who was the first person to fly an airplane to space. He was one of twelve pilots ...

, American astronaut and test pilot * John Kanzius, American inventor, radio and TV engineer

References

External links

* National Register nomination form {{authority control School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania McKim, Mead & White buildings School buildings completed in 1857 Educational institutions established in 1925 Schools in Washington County, Pennsylvania Public high schools in Pennsylvania 1925 establishments in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Pennsylvania