The Trinity Church

Sulaiman Bin Ahmed

The Trinity Church

       Trinity Church was fist built in 1734 in the City of Boston, located in the Back Bay of Boston, Massachusetts. After the first site was razed in the Great Boston Fire of 1872, the current church complex was erected under the direction of Rector Phillips Brooks (1835–1893). The building i.e. the church and parish house were designed by Henry Hobson Richardson and construction took place from 1872 to 1877. The building enhanced Richardson's reputation as an architect, it is the birthplace and archetype of the Richardsonian Romanesque style, characterized by a clay roof, polychromy, rough stone, heavy arches, and a massive tower which was later adopted for some public buildings across the United States. 

      The building's plan is a modified Greek Cross with four arms extending outwards from the central tower, which stands 64 m (211 ft) tall. The density of underground support was mapped, the tower weighed nearly nineteen million pounds, and supported on four piers. The foundation and underground was piled and the concrete used was stabilized, the first course of one of the four pyramids which for the foundation of the tower piers, had been laid on the piles, and as an experiment the outside joints were cemented up, and the whole then grouted with cement and sand until the joints and the space between the stone and concrete were flushed full. The pumping, which had been constantly kept up to free the excavation from the water which came in through the gravelly bottom, then ceased, and the water was allowed to enter the cavity, which it soon filled to the depth of about four feet. 

      Granites were used for the ashlar and trimmings, they were accepted only under severe restrictions, no stone being received of less height than twenty or more than twenty-four inches, or less than four feet long, and a certain proportion were required to be eight feet long, or even more. The masonry was built and grouted, then the upper building was constructed from a great stage, the transept, chancel and aisle walls, as well as the western front, being then high above the ground. Some changes in the design were made as the work went on, in compliance with real or fancied necessities of convenience or construction especially is this the case with regard to the western towers: a lowering of the Church walls, made in hope of affording an additional guarantee of good acoustic quality in the building, which was felt to be a paramount consideration, changed the proportion of walls and tower in a manner which should have been counteracted by increasing the height of the western front, including the towers which for a part of it, and the amended drawings comprehended this alteration as an aesthetic necessity.

       The interiors were all plastered, and proper roofing was put in place i.e. the octagonal roof of the main tower, and the square roofs for the western towers. The windows were glazed with common glass, bordered by patterns of coloured glass. The Church as it stands is a Latin cross, with a semicircular apse added to the eastern arm. The arms of the cross are short, in proportion to their width. In general, taking the square at the intersection of nave and transepts as a modulus, the total length of the auditorium is three squares, of which the chancel, including the apse, forms one, the square at the intersection another, and the nave a third, the transepts being each half a square.

      Above the aisles a gallery is carried across the arches, which from its position, was distinguished by the names of the "triforium" gallery, and serves as a passage to connect the three main galleries, one across either transept, and one across the west-end of the nave, over the vestibule. Both the west gallery and the two triforium galleries connect with the staircases which occupy the western towers, and the transept galleries are also reached by special staircases, ascending, one from a north-eastern vestibule, which serves as entrance both from Huntington Avenue directly and from the cloister communicating with the Chapel, and the other from a south-eastern vestibule entered from St. James Avenue. The robing room opens from the north-east vestibule, as well as The main western vestibule is 52 feet long, the width of the nave, without counting the lower story of the western towers, which virtually for a part of it, and increase its length to upwards of 86 feet. In the middle of the west front is the main portal, and a secondary door opens into each of the towers, giving thus three entrances in the west front, and five double doors open from the western vestibule into the Church. Below is a table showing the summary of the church dimensions.

Extreme width across transepts to outside of walls	120	10
Width of west front	92	10
Width of nave from centre to centre of piers of arcade	53	10
Width of aisles, from the inside of walls to ctr of piers of arcade	9	4
Extreme length of Church, outside	159	11
Depth of chancel	57	5
Width of chancel, inside the walls	52	2
Width of transepts	51	10
Interior dim. Of tower	46 ft. each side
Height of great piers from floor to spring of arches	36	3
Height from floor to upper point of nave ceiling	63	3
Height from floor to ceiling of tower	103	2
Height of exterior walls from ground to cornice	48	0
Height from ground to cornice of tower	121	5
Height from ground to highest stone in building	149	7
Height from ground to topmost point of finial	211	3

Table 1: Trinity church dimension

                                            

REFERENCES

David, W. (1999). A Description of Trinity Church by the Architect, Henry Hobson Richardson. Pdf

Dubé, K. (2014). Holy Trinity Anglican Church at Stanley Mission. JSSAC.