Trinity Episcopal Church

Trinity Episcopal Church is primarily of architectural significance as one of the earliest examples of archaeologically correct Neo-Gothic design in America. The church is historically important for its associations with an important Detroit philanthropist and patron of the arts, James E. Scripps. 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 modelled 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 significant as 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 20th 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.

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.