The Trinity Church that currently stands at 79 Broadway is actually the church's third incarnation. The first Trinity Church was build in 1698. Land was purchases for this Church in 1696 and the church received it's charter from King William III the following year. For these first 78 years of its life, it acted as a church, a school, and base of military operations at the start of the Revolutionary War. (It was the base of BRITISH military operations after George Washington and his men left New York, and during British occupation all clergy were required to be loyalists, despite parishioners including revolutionary leaders.) This incarnation of the church was destroyed during the "Great Fire of New York" that began September 21, 1776 at Fighting Cocks Tavern.
Construction on the second Trinity Church began in 1788 and it was consecrated in 1780. Unfortunately, in 1838, New York experience severe snow storms which caused snow to accumulate on the church's roof causing it to weaken to the point of collapse. Trinity Church had to be torn down.
The third Trinity Church is the church that you can see on 79 Broadway today. It was finished in 1846. Fun fact - when it was built its spire was the tallest structure in Manhattan.
So - another important and possible controversial aspect of Trinity Church is how much land it owns. In 1705, Queen Ann of Great Britain bought additional land for the church, bringing its total land holding to 215 acres of lower Manhattan. The church still owns that land today! This allows Trinity Church to lease land and offer land grants. The very first land grant was given to King's College which was later renamed "Columbia University." An article published earlier this year in the New York Times says that the church's holdings are estimated at a worth of $2 billion! There seems to be some controversy surrounding this land - for example - should Trinity be a bigger player on the world charitable scene by giving more money away? Or should the continue spending they money they make from leasing their land as they do? Even Occupy Wallstreet seemed confused. On one hand, Trinity Church gave them an indoor space to hold meetings and take shelter, on the other, Occupy Wall Street protested some of the businesses leasing their land.
Now, what brings people to Trinity Church? One thing is most likely it's cemetery. Buried in the Trinity Church cemetery are Alexander Hamilton (the man on our $10 bill) and Robert Fulton (inventor of the "commercially successful" steamboat.)
Another draw are the beautiful bronze door by Richard Morris Hunt that were places on the church in 1893. The north door depicts scenes from the Bible while the south door depicts six panels of New York history.
Trinity Church also houses the "Trinity Root." There is an amazing video on the Trinity Root here. The Trinity Root is a bronze sculpture memorializing the surviving root of the Sycamore tree that fell on St. Paul's Chapel during the 9/11 attacks thus protecting it from debris. As a result, not a shingle on St. Paul's Cathedral was damaged or misplaces. You can currently peek in through a little peep hole outside of Trinity Church at the "root." In my opinion it looks like a creepy science experiment but an interesting piece of art none-the-less.
Trinity Church has an amazing timeline on their website that I suggest you look at if you are interested in learning more about its history. It can be found here.
Before I leave I shall leave you with a very important piece of information - Trinity Church belond to the Episcopal Diocese of New York.
Thanks for reading!
Inside Trinity Church
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