Trinity Church

89 Broadway, New York, NY 10006, USA

New York

state

NYC

county

NYC

city

PARK

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Trinity Church is a historic parish in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, whose church is located at 89 Broadway opposite Wall Street, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The current church building is the third to be constructed for the parish, and was designed by Richard Upjohn in the Gothic Revival style. The church is adjacent to the Trinity Churchyard, a burial ground, one of three used by the parish. Trinity's main church building is a National Historic Landmark

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In 1696, Governor Benjamin Fletcher approved the purchase of land in Lower Manhattan by the Church of England community for construction of a new church. The parish received its charter from King William III on May 6, 1697. Trinity's first church was a single-story rectangular structure facing the Hudson River, which was constructed in 1698 and destroyed in the Great New York City Fire of 1776. The parish's second church was built facing Wall Street and was consecrated in 1790. The third and current church was erected from 1839 to 1846 and was the tallest building in the United States until 1869, as well as the tallest in New York City until 1890.

CHURCH

EST. 1696

During the American Revolutionary War the city became the British military and political base of operations in North America, following the departure of General George Washington and the Continental Army shortly after Battle of Long Island and subsequent local defeats. Under British occupation clergy were required to be Loyalists, while the parishioners included some members of the revolutionary New York Provincial Congress, as well as the First and Second Continental Congresses.

The church was destroyed in the Great New York City Fire of 1776, which started in the Fighting Cocks Tavern, destroying between 400 and 500 buildings and houses, and leaving thousands of New Yorkers homeless. Six days later, most of the city's volunteer firemen followed General Washington north. Rev. Charles Inglis served throughout the war and then to Nova Scotia on evacuation with the whole congregation of Trinity Church.