The Lost Church of the Holy Trinity - Madison Avenue and 42nd Street

 

from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

A succinct announcement in the New-York Daily Tribune on August 20, 1864 read, "A New Episcopal Church--Divine Service will be held by the Church of the Holy Trinity in Rutger's Institute, 5th Av. between 41st and 42d Streets, on Sunday at 5 P.M."  The New York Times explained that the previous January "a proposition was made to the young pastor" Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, Jr., who was then Rector of the Church of the Mediator, "to unite with the Church of the Ascension in establishing a new Episcopal Church on Murray Hill."

As mentioned in the announcement, the congregation would temporarily use the chapel of the Rutger's Female Institute.  Organizers, said The New York Times, predicted "that five years at least would be required to establish the enterprise in an edifice of its own."  Those founders would be happily astonished.  The project went forward at a dizzying speed.

Four months after organizing, on April 4, the new parish of the Church of the Holy Trinity was formed; on May 1, Rev. Tyng was appointed rector; and on September 8 the cornerstone of a permanent church building was laid.  

The parish had acquired the large corner plot at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 42nd street.  The cornerstone laying was, according to The New York Times, done "with appropriate exercises.  Rev. Dr. Tyng officiated on the occasion."  With the Civil War raging, the New York Herald said that the ceremony took place "in the dark hour of our nation's struggle."  Tyng placed a tin box into the stone that contained "a copy of the Bible, a copy of the Constitution of the United States, and other documents wrapped around with a small American flag," as reported by The New York Times.  The New York Herald said the flag, "with thirteen stripes and thirty-four stars," reflected "confidence in the restoration of our government over every State of the Union."

The New York Times mentioned, "Jacob W. Mould is the architect."  Jacob Wrey Mould had arrived in New York City from England in 1852 to design details of the New York Crystal Palace.  He brought with him a passion for bold ornament, vivid color and patterning.  His polychromed design for the Church of the Holy Trinity included a palette of red, yellow, blue and black.   The New York Times reported, "The building is to be blue and Ohio yellow stone and brick laid in black mortar."  

As the building took shape on May 6, 1865, The New York Times said that passersby may have been "puzzled" by the "walls being so low and the roof crowned with a ventilating turret so cut up with gables and valleys."  Saying that the cruciform plan would accommodate "over nine hundred persons," the article explained that the building would be just one story tall,

...but on entering the interior proves sufficiently lofty, the roof trusses being framed so as to show.  There is a ventilating spire for light and air at the intersection of the nave and transept roofs, forming an elevated central feature to the whole composition.  The organ  and choir screen form the sole decorative features of the interior, and are situated behind the chancel and altar--the radiating pipes of the organ being decorated and illuminated, and so disposed as to show the rich stained-glass windows in the extreme rear wall.

The article explained, "Mr. Mould has not assumed to embody any features of the so-called Gothic, Byzantine, Italian or Renaissance styles, but simply such a combination of architectural elements as are best adapted to produce a temporary, economical and yet commodious church building."  The critic praised the "charming novelty of effect" and the "cheerfulness of interior," saying, "we know of no ecclesiastical edifice in the city at all comparable to it."  He congratulated the trustees, as well.  "They had the good sense to go right straight to Mr. Mould and place the commission in his hands, without beating about the bush."

Mould designed the brick-and-stone structure in a rustic, Victorian Gothic style.  The gables were supported with open trusses that, combined with the building's low profile and the roof's many angles, created a charming, country church feel.  Mould used differing colors of materials to enliven the facade and gave the slate singled roof polychromatic designs.  

Although, "many of the details were yet incomplete," according to the New York Herald, the first service in the building was held on Easter Sunday 1865.  Just two weeks after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the nation was still grieving.  "The chancel was draped in mourning for our deceased President," said the article.  

Four months later, the church was the target of irreverent vandalism.  On the afternoon in August 1865, a little girl named Mary McCarty saw a group of boys hurling stones at the stained glass windows.  She recognized one of them as 14-year-old Thomas Dowd.  The New York Times said, "She had known Dowd for years and saw him, and could not be mistaken."  Mary told a police officer who arrested the teen.

Thomas Dowd faced a judge on August 30.  Mary McCarty testified that she saw him break two windows.  Dowd produced another 14-year-old, John Keefe, as a witness.  The Times reported that he, "undertook to prove an alibi and tried to account for every hour Dowd had spent with him that day in another part of the city."  His story fell apart upon questioning and "he admitted he was among the boys who demolished the church windows, but denied having had any hand in it himself."  The article said, "Mrs. Dowd perjured herself by trying to prove the witness McCarty had committed perjury."  The policeman, however, supported Mary McCarty's story "in every particular."  Dowd was found guilty.

Calling the church "a very handsome structure," The New York Times reported on its consecration on December 22, 1865.  The service was celebrated by the Right Rev. Bishop Henry C. Potter.  The New-York Tribune said he gave "an eloquent address; in the course of which he strongly condemned the use of music of an operatic character in Divine Service."  He did not find fault with hymns and organ music, here, however.

Like all church buildings, this one was often the venue for public gatherings.  On November 26, 1868, for instance, the New-York Tribune reported, "An illustrated Lecture of Travel, by B. P. Worcester, of a Tour to Bible Lands, will be given this evening at the Church of the Holy Trinity."  The announcement noted it would be "illustrated by stereoscopic views, taken by the photographer of the Quaker City excursion party of the Holy Land."

In the background can be see the Vanderbilt Avenue side of the Grand Central Depot. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

A convention called The Evangelical Anniversaries of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America was held here starting on October 18, 1870.  The New-York Tribune said, "The proceedings were entirely harmonious, and a vigorous hostility to High Churchism was manifested throughout."

At the time, the growing congregation was straining the picturesque structure.  On March 3, 1873, the New York Herald remarked on the last service in the building.  "The elegant and well-known Church of the Holy Trinity...was filled to overflowing yesterday morning by parishioners and strangers to take part in the farewell services of this house of worship, as around the present structure there is already being laid the foundation of a more commodious and grander building."

Leopold Eidlitz's striking Church of the Holy Trinity replaced Mould's original.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

Jacob Wrey Mould's striking Victorian Gothic-style Church of the Holy Trinity was demolished after standing less than a decade.  In its place rose the Ruskinian Gothic church designed by Leopold Eidlitz.  That edifice, too, was short-lived, demolished in 1896.