Trinity Episcopal Church is a historic church building in Stockton, Minnesota, United States, constructed in 1859. It is now the Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church and was enlarged with a new wing in 1971. The original section was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1984 for having local significance in the themes of architecture and exploration/settlement. It was nominated for its well-preserved Carpenter Gothic architecture and shared importance to a community established by American-born settlers but later dominated by German immigrants.

Description

The original wing has been called a "sophisticated example of a Carpenter Gothic church with spire." The building's

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

s and door are typical of Carpenter Gothic architecture, while its center entry

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

is atypical.

History

The first settlers arrived in the vicinity of Stockton around 1855. Mostly White Anglo-Saxon Protestants from the

East Coast of the United States The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Eastern United States meets the North Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard contains the coa ...

, they formed an

Episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United State ...

parish in 1858 and built the Trinity Episcopal Church the following year. By the end of the 1860s, however, an influx of German immigrants had altered the ethnic composition of Stockton. The church struggled to accommodate a bilingual congregation, and discontinued regular services in 1872. Stockton's new German majority formed a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

congregation in 1891 and obtained the church building the following year. In 1924 the church was moved a short distance southeast onto a new foundation that had been constructed there with a full basement. At the same time a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

with stained glass was added. A renovation greatly altered the church's interior in 1956, but did not compromise the historical integrity of the exterior. In 1971 a new wing using a style sympathetic to the original was added to the west.

References

External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota 19th-century Episcopal church buildings Carpenter Gothic church buildings in Minnesota Churches completed in 1859 Churches in Winona County, Minnesota Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Episcopal church buildings in Minnesota German-American culture in Minnesota Lutheran churches in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Winona County, Minnesota

Description

History

See also

References

External links