Trinity Episcopal Church (Fort Wayne, Indiana)

Trinity Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal congregation and church, designed by Toledo, Ohio architect Charles Crosby Miller and constructed ca. 1865 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The congregation was organized in 1839 as Christ Church and the name changed in 1844 to Trinity Church. The first church was built on the southeast corner of Berry and Harrison Streets in 1848. It is an example of Gothic Revival architecture.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

HISTORY

The Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, Bishop of the Northwest, visited Fort Wayne for the first time in 1837 in an effort to organize a church. Two years later, he set the Rev. Benjamin Hutchins, formerly of Philadelphia, to organize a church, and Christ Episcopal Church was formally established on May 26, 1839. The congregation languished when Hutchins departed soon after, and in 1844, Peter P. Bailey, a businessman from New York City, began offering lay readings from the Book of Common Prayer. Bishop Kemper sent another missionary, the Rev. Benjamin Halsted, and on May 25, 1844, Trinity Episcopal Church was formally organized. After meeting initially in the Allen County Courthouse, the church raised funds for a wood framed chapel at the southeast corner of Berry and Harrison. (The present historical marker is inaccurate about its location).

In 1863, the vestry called the Rev. Joseph S. Large to lead an effort to build a new Gothic Revival Church under a design by Charles Crosby Miller of Toledo, Ohio. After many delays and financial shortfalls, the building was completed in the fall of 1866 and consecrated two years later by the Rt. Rev. Joseph C. Talbot, Bishop Coadjutor of Indiana.

Trinity Church has had the following rectors:

Rev. Benjamin Halsted, 1844-1846

Rev. Joseph S. Large, 1848-1854

Rev. Caleb Alexander Bruce, 1854-1855

Rev. Eugene Charles Pattison, 1856-1858

Rev. Stephen Henry Battin, 1858-1863

Rev. Joseph S. Large, 1863-1872

Rev. Colin Campbell Tate, 1872-1879

Rev. William Naylor Webbe, 1879-1888

Rev. Alexander Washington Seabrease, 1888-1904

Rev. Edward Wilson Averill, 1904-1923

Rev. Louis Niccola Rocca, 1923-1930

Rev. Charles Noyes Tyndell, 1931-1932

Rev. James McNeal Wheatley, 1932-1947

Rev. George Bartlett Wood, 1947-1971

Rev. Chandler Corydon Randall, 1971-1988

Rev. Frank Hazlett Moss III, 1990-1999

Rev. Rebecca Ferrell Nickel, 2001-2004

Rev. Thomas Parker Hansen, 2006-2016

Rev. T. J. Freeman, 2017-

In 1955-1956, a large classroom building was added to the church to serve the needs of the growing parish. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.