Trinity Episcopal Church, Detroit Michigan

Date added: December 09, 2024

Looking southwest from Grand River Avenue showing its present appearance (1979)

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Trinity Episcopal Church is one of the earliest examples of archaeologically correct Neo-Gothic design in America.

Trinity Church was built as an artistic endeavor of James E. Scripps, the wealthy publisher of the Detroit News. Scripps had built his home on Trumbull Avenue near Grand River Avenue in 1879. In the late 1880s he became interested in English Medieval art and architecture as a result of his extensive travels in England. Upon returning home, Scripps determined to indulge his interest by constructing a church correctly modeled after the English parish churches he had seen.

At the time, Scripps was a member of the Epiphany Reformed Episcopal Church, which was housed in a small, frame, Gothic Revival chapel at the corner of Trumbull and Myrtle Avenues about a block from his home. In 1889 the eleven-year-old congregation took the name of Trinity Episcopal Church.

Scripps employed the architects who had designed his residence, Mason and Rice, "to give Detroit an example of the old-time church, at once so picturesque and impressive." Church literature indicates that Scripps hired an English architect to supply Mason and Rice with drawings and details from authentic English Gothic churches, which they in turn, incorporated into a single unified composition based on medieval church plans. In July, 1890 Scripps himself took out a building permit for the structure, which was built next to the wooden chapel the congregation had been using since 1880.

Trinity Church is the first known example in Michigan and one of the first in the United States, of a Gothic building designed in imitation of specific ancient models. This approach to design, which dominated the Gothic church work of the best 20^th century architects, differs greatly in philosophy from the freely interpreted, picturesque, Gothic Revival of the Victorian period.

The design tradition partially initiated by Trinity Episcopal Church was expanded and refined in the twentieth century by the work of such distinguished architects as Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Goodhue, Trinity Church gains in significance when it is remembered that All Saints Church in Ashmont, near Boston, acknowledged as the first fully-realized example of the new Gothic tradition sometimes known as Neo-Gothic, was not completed until 1895. Outside the mainstream of architectural theory and in a community still firmly rooted in the eclectic Victorian tradition, Trinity Church is a monument to the scholarly artistic aspirations of James Scripps and the talent of his versatile architect, George D. Mason.

The building's influence on church design in Detroit was profound. By the early 1900s, the Neo-Gothic style dominated church building in Detroit, which up to this time had been solidly rooted in the High Victorian Gothic and Romanesque styles. The result was a collection of fine structures by such nationally known architects as Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson, the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, 1911 and Henry A. Walsh, Most Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, 1915.

Scripps continued to espouse and promote the popularity of the Gothic style in Detroit. The large art gallery he added to his home in 1891, designed by Mason and Rice, introduced the Tudor Gothic style to domestic architecture in Detroit and did much to ensure that it would subsequently become the standard format for upper-class dwellings in the city. In 1898, Scripps hired well-known architect Albert Kahn, who was associated with George D. Mason at the time, to design a copy of the Chapter House at Westminster Abbey as a library addition to the enlarged Scripps house. Although the Scripps mansion and art gallery survive, the library was demolished in 1967. Scripp's love of architecture was inherited by his married daughter's family, the Booths, who established the Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills and encouraged internationally known architect Eliel Saarinen to stay in America and work at the school.

Trinity church remains well-preserved and well-cared for as a key structure in the evolution of the Neo-Gothic style in America. It is also significant as a monument to the scholarly ambitions of James E. Scripps, not only a nationally prominent newspaper publisher, but also a man whose aesthetic interests importantly influenced the progression of architectural styles in Detroit.

Building Description

Trinity Episcopal Church is located about 1 1/2 miles from downtown Detroit in a deteriorated late-nineteenth-century residential area of modest, detached Victorian houses and twentieth century apartment buildings. It is sited at the edge of the sidewalk and together with the adjacent parish house, it occupies almost its entire lot at the southwest corner of Myrtle and Trumbull Avenue.

The church is a rock-faced limestone, cruciform structure of Early English Gothic design about 100' x 55' in size built in 1890-92.

It is symmetrical and basilican in plan with a massive square tower rising two stories over the crossing. The twin entrance vestibules are located at the west end of the north and south aisles, The fenestration consists of symmetrically arranged, lancet-arched, stone windows grouped under hood molds. The roof of the nave, aisles and tower are encompassed by Crenelated parapet walls.

Among the interesting features are the small octagonal stair turret that abuts the southeast corner of the tower and the carved stone gargoyle rainwater leaders. The design relies heavily on the contrast between the coursed rockfaced white limestone walls and the smooth, brown sandstone trim used for the quoins, the belt courses, the copings, the window surrounds, the basement facing and the entrance vestibules.

Adjacent to the church to the south is an "L-shaped" 2 1/2-story parish house that bounds two sides of the small courtyard between it and the church. The parish house was built in 1925 and reflects the Collegiate Gothic style popular at that time. In contrast to the church, it is constructed of dark brown ashlar with white limestone trim. It is an asymmetrical structure with typical limestone Tudor Gothic detailing including two-story bay windows and Tudor arched doorways.

The interior of the church is accurately patterned after English Gothic models. The nave is separated from the side aisles by a Gothic-arched stone arcade surmounted by large clerestory windows. The walls of the nave are covered in rough plaster which contrasts with the smooth stonework of the arches and the fenestration.

The crossing is framed by two-story molded Gothic arches that support the elaborate stone ribbed vaulting. A large circular opening at the apex of the vaulting was designed to permit the removal of the bells from the belfry in the crossing tower.

In contrast to the stone vaulting at the crossing, the ceilings of the nave and the transepts are of paneled timber, slightly pitched, and supported by shallow molded, timber Tudor arches springing from stone blocks between the clerestory windows carved with stylized angel faces. The chancel is roofed with wooden vaulting.

The chancel, at the east end of the church, is raised above the level of the nave. It contains a fine carved wood Gothic reredos with painted panels of intertwined foliage framing scriptural passages. Above the reredos is a fine large Gothic stained glass window by Mayer Studios of Munich.

Flanking the chancel is the organ chamber on the north and the sacristy on the south. The organ built for the church by George Jardine and Son of New York in 1892 is still in use. Above the sacristy, the unused pastor's study is reached by the circular tower staircase. It contains a fireplace and a small quatrefoil window overlooking the south transept.

The church contains few ornamental features. The simple metal, ring-type lighting fixtures may be original or were installed very soon after the building was constructed. The plaster walls are painted cream. The wooden pews have simple paneled ends. Only the stained glass memorial windows, installed over the years in some windows to replace the original amber glass, add color to the interior.

The interior of the parish house contains offices, classrooms, assembly spaces and the St. James Chapel, which is located in the wing connecting it with the main church. The interiors of the parish house and the chapel have Tudor Gothic detailing typical of the 1920s, including smoked oak woodwork, molded plaster ceilings and some fine leaded glass.