Trinity Church

Boston Trinity Church - Tourist Attractions.TV

Boston Trinity Church - The original Trinity Church was located at Summer Street in Boston. The parish’s plan to move to the Copley Square, the church’ present location, in Back Bay started in March of 1872 when they requested the local architects to design their new church. The parish was at the stage of reviewing the new designs submitted when the church was caught in the Great Boston Fire in November of the same year.

The present design of the Trinity Church is a Romanesque design of Henry Hobson Richardson, the architect who is widely renowned for his “Richardson Romanesque.” Richardson’s proposal of the Trinity Church was a low church in a Latin cross form with a wide and low tower at the center. A semicircular apse was added adorning the eastern side of the church.

The construction of the church based on Richardson’s design started in 1873, months after the destruction of the original Trinity Church. The building materials used were mainly granites and red sandstones ensuring the strength of the building. Large granite stones quarried from Westerly, Rhode Island were mostly of one by two feet in dimensions.

The church was constructed on a wet marshland of Back Bay fronting three different streets. The church tower having a weight approximated to 40,000 tons due to the materials used covered a wide foundation that reached over 90 square feet. The foundation supporting the great weight of the tower was filled with wooden piles that were fixed with concrete to prevent them from moving sideways. The central tower has four pyramids made of granite stones at the corners right on top of the wooden piles for added support. The original wooden piles still exist at present and are closely monitored to prevent decay because most of them were submerged in the water just beneath the tower.

The construction of the church lasted for four years and the new Trinity Church was consecrated on February 9, 1877.

Address: Trinity Church, 206 Clarendon Street, Boston, MA 02116

Telephone: 617-536-0944

Church Hours

Sunday: 7:00 am-7:00 pm

Monday: Closed (except The Shop at Trinity and tours)

Tuesday-Saturday: 9:00 am-6:00 pm