Trinity Church on the Green

Trinity Church on the Green
Location230 Temple Street, New Haven, Connecticut
Built1814-1816
ArchitectIthiel Town
Architectural styleGothic Revival
Part ofNew Haven Green Historic District (ID70000838)
Added to NRHPDecember 30, 1970

Trinity Church on the Green or Trinity on the Green is a historic, culturally and community-active parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut in New Haven, Connecticut, of the Episcopal Church. It is one of three historic churches on the New Haven Green.

This landmark building was designed by Ithiel Town in 1813, built between 1814 and 1815, and consecrated in 1816. It was built in what contemporaries such as the Rev. Samuel Jarvis labeled as the "Gothick style".[1] It is the first example of a thoroughly Gothic style derived church building in North America, and predates the Gothic Revival architectural style in England by more than two decades.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

It is notable for its historic architecture. It largely retains its original early Gothic exterior, using the indigenous New Haven trap rock, in this form, a red/brown/orange stone that changes color with light and moisture for its external walls. Its mostly newer Gothicizing interior has burgundy walls and deep-sea green ceilings, oak pews with closing doors leading into the aisle, and gilt arches, groining, and organ pipes. It has eight stained glass windows on the north and south sides, including four Tiffany stained glass windows, and a rare "nonafoil" or nonagon shaped nine-petal Trinity Rose Window on the chancel end of the church (to the west), added when the chancel was added in 1884. The west end (liturgical east) wall of the chancel also contains two pentafoils alpha/omega windows, and five narrow windows with medallions giving the history of creation, along with icons of the four gospels and other religious symbols. Most unusual is the east side outfacing window "Trinity's History and Vision," commissioned for the 250th anniversary of the first church and designed by glass artist Val Sigsted; it is back-lit at night and it shines out on the dark New Haven green for those passing by or waiting for the bus. The stone reredos in the chancel was dedicated in 1912, with statues carved by Lee Lawrie in both late Gothic Revival and very early Art Deco styles. There is also an historically sensitive architect-designed columbarium in the nave, completed in 2009, with a small altar used in healing services.

Trinity, along with its two neighboring churches on the Green, is part of the New Haven Green Historic District, that was designated a National Historic Landmark District on December 30, 1970.[12] [13] [14]

Calling itself a "historic church in the heart of a city", Trinity is also known for its music. Its music program includes the Choir of Men and Boys, first formed in 1885, that has performed at the White House and toured England and the Continent, the more recently formed Choir of Men and Girls, and an adult parish choir, all accompanied by a large Aeolian-Skinner organ. Its Trinity Players dramatic group performs original sermon dramas during services, and plays at other events.

Trinity Parish also sponsors the Chapel on the Green, a highly-accessible "outdoor church" that offers services and also lunch for the homeless every Sunday afternoon of the year regardless of weather. Its drumming circle, heard for blocks each Sunday, is its call to worship. Nearly a quarter of the parish income is spent is spent on local community outreach programs.

A cultural center, Trinity on the Green is often a venue for concerts, dramatic performances, and events by Yale University, Hopkins School, and the International Festival of Arts and Ideas.

  1. ^ Buggeln, Gretchen Townsend, Temples of Grace: The Material Transformation of Connecticut's Churches, 1790-1840, UPNE, 2003, pp. 112-113
  2. ^ The earliest authority for the originality of the Trinity New Haven Gothic style church is found in Jarvis, Samuel, An Address, delivered in the City of New Haven, at the Laying of the Corner-Stone of Trinity Church, May 17th, 1814; together with the Form of Prayer composed for that occasion, New-Haven, 1814
  3. ^ Dr. Dwight in his account of the city of New Haven wrote that, "The Episcopal church is a Gothic building the only correct specimen it is believed in the United States." Blake, Henry, Chronicles of New Haven Green from 1638 to 1862, Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Press, 1898, p. 27
  4. ^ Buggeln, Gretchen, Temples of Grace: the Material transformation of Connecticut's Churches, 1790-1840, UPNE, 2003, p. 110, notes that, "Trinity was the first of several Gothic buildings erected by Episcopal congregations in Connecticut in the next few decades. St. John's in Salisbury (1823), St. John's in Kent (1823-26), and St. Andrew's in Marble Dale (1821-23) are good examples of the standard form these early Gothic churches assumed in more rural areas, rendered in brick or stone." Buggeln on page 115 also quotes Bishop Hobart and the Rev. Harry Croswell who were both present at Trinity's consecration in 1816, and who call it a Gothic church.
  5. ^ Croswell, Harry, Annals, a manuscript in the archives of New Haven Museum, p. 55, calls it "the first attempt at the gothic style of architecture in church-building in New England", and credits it with bringing in new members.
  6. ^ Dexter, Franklin Bowditch, Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, Volume 9, The Society, 1918 p. 50, notes that Trinity church "was heralded as the first attempt at Gothic in church building in New England, and one of the largest structures for that purpose in America."
  7. ^ Seymour, G. D., "Ithiel Town" entry in the Dictionary of American Biography, Base Set, American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936
  8. ^ Smith, G.E. Kidder, Source Book of American Architecture: 500 Notable Buildings from the 10th Century to the Present, Princeton Architectural Press, 2000, p. 153, calls it "one of the first examples of Gothic Revival in the United States."
  9. ^ Stanton, Phoebe B., The Gothic Revival and American Church Architecture: An Episode in Taste, 1840-1856, JHU Press, 1997, p. 3, though Stanton gives the 1840s as the start date in America of "mature Gothic revivalism" church architecture and credits the Rev. Samuel Jarvis with promoting the mature Gothic style in Philadelphia.
  10. ^ Saunders, Mark, Piety in Providence: Class Dimensions of Religious Experience in Antebellum Rhode Island, Cornell University Press, 2000, p. 16 suggests that St. John's Cathedral, Providence Rhode Island, designed in 1811 was "of Gothic design", but other commentators note that it was actually built in the Federalist style (see http://seththompson.info/sacredspacesne/?p=559, accessed October 23, 2013). Gothic elements were later added to what seems to be, with its dome roof, a Federalist design with a few Gothic elements. In April of 2012, the Diocese suspended services at the Cathedral.
  11. ^ The first stone neo-Gothic church in Canada was probably St. John's Church in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1824, the same year work began on Notre-Dame de Montreal. There were earlier examples of churches with Gothic elements: Christ Church, Stratford (1743) had pointed arch windows, for example, but these eighteenth-century wooden churches are not considered Gothic Revival, but in the Colonial style with Gothic details. The oldest church in the United States is St. Luke's "Old Brick Church in Smithfiled, Va., (1632); it is a rectangular "room church" which also shows Gothic details, some of which were added in the nineteenth century.
  12. ^ "New Haven Green Historic District". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on October 5, 2007. Retrieved October 3, 2007.
  13. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  14. ^ Staff, Historic Sites Survey (June 6, 1971). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: New Haven Green Historic District". National Park Service. and Accompanying 11 photos, from 1970 and 1960