Trinity Episcopal Church

About this property

Trinity Episcopal Church, now known as Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, is the first Episcopal and the oldest surviving sanctuary in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. It is a Gothic Revival church that is modeled after York Minster in York, England. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places on February 24, 1971. Trinity Church is on the east side of Sumter Street between Gervais and Senate streets. It is directly east of the South Carolina State House. In 1812, the Society for the Advancement of Christianity in South Carolina, which was formed in 1810 by the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, sent Rev. Fowler to Columbia to establish a mission. The parish was organized on August 8, 1812. Bishop Theodore Dehon visited on May 13, 1813 and held services at the State House. It was incorporated by the South Carolina Legislature as the "Episcopal Church in Columbia." The Legislature gave four lots on Lady Street to the Presbyterian and Episcopal congregations with the condition that they pay half their value to the Baptist and Methodist congregations to assist in construction of their churches. The Episcopalians sold their lots to the Presbyterians for the construction of the existing First Presbyterian Church. The cornerstone for the first church was laid on March 7, 1814. Bishop Dehon consecrated Trinity Church on December 14, 1814. The wooden church on the southeastern corner of Sumter and Gervais Streets had a cruciform shape. General Hampton donated $2,000 (equivalent to $30,714 in 2025) and the organ to the church. After a period of four years without a rector, Peter J. Shand was sent by the Diocese as a lay reader. On January 19, 1834, he was ordained a deacon and was invited by the vestry to run the church. He accepted and stayed for the next fifty-two years. The parish grew. In 1838, it began an African American Sunday School in 1838, installed a new organ in 1839, and began a school for indigent students in 1844. The Gothic Revival church was designed by Edward Brickell White and calls to mind the medieval York Minster. The cornerstone was laid on November 26, 1845, by the rector, Peter Shand. Although the church had a cruciform design, only the nave and the twin towers were constructed. Each tower had eight pinnacles topped with a fleur de lis. The brick structure was plastered with buff stucco. The towers and walls have shouldered buttresses. The nave has a clerestory, which is the only one in a Columbia church. The roof is supported on exposed wooden beams. Bishop Gadsden consecrated the church on February 14, 1857. The baptismal font donated by John S. Preston was sculpted by Hiram Powers. This was later donated to the Church of the Nativity in Union, South Carolina and replaced by another Preston family donation sculpted by Hiram Powers.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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