Unity Church, now known as Trinity Episcopal Church, is a historic church located at 2200 Western Avenue in
Mattoon,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
. Mattoon's
Unitarian congregation built the church in 1872. The church was built with red
brick
A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...
with stone decorations and a wooden
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...
. A rectangular
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 to ...
stands at the church's southeast corner; the tower is
louver
A louver (American English) or louvre (Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences) is a window blind or window shutter, shutter with horizontal wikt:slat, slats that are angle ...
ed and contains two bells. The church's main entrance is located at the bottom of the tower. The church's
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
is on the south side of the church; the nave features a
wheel window and a large
stained glass window
Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...
with a wheel and two arches. The top of the nave and bell tower is decorated with
corbel
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...
led brickwork. Mattoon's Unitarian congregation disbanded in the 1900s, and the church is now occupied by an
Episcopal congregation.
The church was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on March 19, 1982.
References
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois
Churches completed in 1872
National Register of Historic Places in Coles County, Illinois
Buildings and structures in Coles County, Illinois
Episcopal church buildings in Illinois
19th-century Episcopal church buildings
{{Illinois-Anglican-church-stub