TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH

The congregation elected to construct the current edifice on Fall Street, at Van Cleef Lake, and the cornerstone was laid on June 2, 1885. The Church was completed in 1886, less than a year after construction began. With much fanfare, the congregation first met for worship in the new Trinity Church on April 24, 1886, Easter Day.

Architects Brown and Dawson of Troy designed the church to be built of blue limestone, quarried nearby. They worked with contractor William Crabtree of New York City, and with Richard Wickham of Albany as subcontractor and builder of most of the Church furniture. The combination of Gothic and Early English style, with Romanesque elements in the interior was considered "a little novel". The altar, font, bell, and choir window were brought from the old church.

The more than 100 year-old Trinity Church has faced some costly structural problems. When the Seneca-Cayuga Canal was first opened by the State for public use in 1915, the waterway was over thirty feet from the church. However, by the 1990's the water was only 5 feet away and the building was in peril. Fortunately, the parishioners mounted a successful campaign to local, state and federal authorities to save their Church from the Canal.

Recently, professional stained glass window experts have identified certain windows ~ among them the most priceless ones ~ as being in urgent need of repairs, which stem from original engineering defects. Trinity needed "angels" of all kinds to help fund restoration of its priceless irreplaceable windows, some made by Louis Tiffany Studios... and fortunately restoration was done... leaving the Trinity Episcopal Church one of the most photographed and recognizable structures in Upstate New York. However, Trinity now needs more "angels" to repair and restructure the deteriorating tower.

Please contact Trinity Episcopal Church at (315) 568-5145.