A DESCRIPTION 
 
 of 
 
 TRINITY CHURCH 
 
 »*y 
 
 The ArcM teet 
 Henry Mobson RMmrtat 
 
Description of the Church 
 
 AT the time of the burning of the old Trinity 
 Church, on Summer Street, the project for a 
 X Inew building was well advanced. Land had 
 been bought, competitive designs had been invited and 
 received, and a selection made ; and a considerable 
 amount of work had been done on the drawings for the 
 new structure. 
 
 In a modern Church, if the logical sequence of one 
 part from another is not as close as in a mediaeval 
 Cathedral, still it is true that every detail of the con- 
 struction, from the front steps to the finish on the roof, 
 must be thought over, viewed in the light of all 
 probable contingencies, and fixed with tolerable 
 distinctness, before the excavations can be safely 
 begun. 
 
 Trinity Church was no exception to this rule : the 
 character of the design, and the nature of the ground, 
 on which the building was to stand, brought problems 
 for the solution of which no familiar precedent existed, 
 and which were to be worked out by accurate and 
 anxious theoretical investigation. 
 
 On testing the ground at the site a compact 
 stratum was found, overlaid by a quantity of alluvium, 
 upon which a mass of gravel, about thirty feet deep, 
 had been filled in. Upon such a foundation was to be 
 built a structure, the main feature of which consisted 
 in a tower weighing nearly nineteen million pounds, 
 and supported on four piers. The first pile was driven 
 April 21, 1873. Every pile was watched, numbered, its 
 place marked on a plan at a large scale, and a record 
 made of the weight of the hammer with which it was 
 
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driven, the distance that the pile sank at the last three 
 blows, and the height from which the hammer fell. 
 With these indications, a map of the bearing stratum 
 was made, with contour lines, showing the surface of 
 the clay bed. 
 
 Meanwhile, the preparatiop of the plans for the 
 superstructure was going on, and the last of the four 
 thousand five hundred piles which support the build- 
 ing had not been driven before the mason work was 
 begun. On the 10th of October, 1873, the contract was 
 made with Messrs. Norcross Brothers, of Worcester, 
 Mass., for the masonry and carpenter work of the 
 structure; the Building Committee, who had a large 
 quantity of stone on the ground brought from the ruins 
 of the Summer Street Church, undertaking to furnish 
 all the foundation stone, except that for the great piers 
 of the tower, which it was necessary to construct of 
 special stones. Under the centre of the Church, a 
 space ninety feet square had been reserved for the 
 tower foundation, and this had been driven uniformly 
 full of piles, as near together as practicable, over two 
 thousand being contained within the area. This area, 
 while the foundation walls for the other parts of the 
 Church were building, was subjected to various pro- 
 cesses, in preparation for its future duty. 
 
 The piles within these limits were cut off at 
 “grade five,” six inches lower than the piles under the 
 other portions of the building, as an excess of precau- 
 tion against any failure of water for keeping the wood 
 saturated. The ground was then excavated around the 
 heads of the piles to a depth of two feet, and replaced 
 with concrete. The concrete was mixed on the ground, 
 put into barrows, and wheeled on plank ways laid on 
 the heads of the piles to its destination, and thrown 
 into the excavation. Four successive layers, each six 
 inches thick, were put in, and each thoroughly com- 
 pacted with wooden rammers. The upper surface of 
 the concrete was kept one inch below the heads of the 
 
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piles, on the theory that the piles being the true 
 support of the structure, it was important that every 
 stone should rest firmly upon them, without coming in 
 contact with the concrete, which might some time sink, 
 by the settlement of the gravel filling, and cause dis- 
 location of any masonry which might rest partly upon 
 it and partly on the unyielding piles. The concrete, 
 however, had an important use in preventing the 
 lateral motion of the piles, and to some extent connect- 
 ing them together. 
 
 Before the close of this season, the first course of 
 one of the four pyramids which form the foundation of 
 the tower piers, had been laid on the piles, and as an 
 experiment the outside joints were cemented up, and 
 the whole then grouted with cement and sand till the 
 joints and the space between the stone and concrete 
 were flushed full. The pumping, which had been 
 constantly kept up to free the excavation from the 
 water which came in through the gravelly bottom, then 
 ceased, and the water was allowed to enter the cavity, 
 which it soon filled to the depth of about four feet, and 
 the operations on the ground were suspended until the 
 following spring. During the winter, however, exten- 
 sive preparations were made for the following season. 
 Choice had been made of the Dedham granite for the 
 ashlar, and of Longmeadow freestone for the 
 trimmings and cut stone work, and the contractors 
 hired land and opened quarries of their own, both at 
 Dedham and Longmeadow. The Dedham granite is a 
 fined grained stone, of a beautiful color, rather re- 
 sembling a sandstone in effect, and harmonizing very 
 well with the brown freestone, but, like most red 
 granite, being only found at the surface of the quarry, 
 there was difficulty in procuring stones large enough 
 for the water-table and some other portions, as the 
 same atmospheric or other influences which had chang- 
 ed the upper part of the granite ledge from its natural 
 gray to salmon color, had caused also frequent seams, 
 
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imperceptible at first, but which showed themselves by 
 the falling to pieces of the largest stones while being 
 dressed. 
 
 To meet this difficulty, search was made and a red 
 granite found at Westerly, R. I. , which, although 
 also a surface stone, and less delicate in color than the 
 Dedham, was of admirable quality, pieces twenty 
 feet long or over being easily procured. The contrac- 
 tors, with praiseworthy enterprise, secured land here, 
 and opened a third quarry, from which was taken all 
 the ashlar below and including the water-table, as well 
 as a portion of the largest foundation stones. At all 
 these quarries work was prosecuted through the win- 
 ter, and a large quantity of material accumulated, be- 
 sides many hundred tons of dimension granite of ord- 
 inary kinds, for the foundation of the great piers, for 
 which contracts had been previously made, and which 
 was procured from various localities, partly from 
 Rockport, Mass., part from Quincy, and some of the 
 best stone from the coast of Maine. These were all 
 large stones, weighing from one to four tons each, and 
 as the work for which they were destined was 
 the most important as well as the most trying, in 
 the building, they were accepted only under severe re- 
 strictions, no stone being received of less height than 
 twenty or more than twenty-four inches, or less than 
 four feet long, and a certain proportion were required 
 to be eight feet long, or even more. 
 
 On resuming operations in the spring of 1874, it 
 was found that the tide water, coming in through the 
 gravel, had affected the setting of the cement. The 
 concrete was in a favorable condition, but the grouting 
 of the masonry which had been started for the pier was 
 still very soft, although made with a cement which, 
 under ordinary circumstances, sets rapidly. In view 
 of this unexplained difficulty, as well as the need of 
 being able to proceed rapidly with the piers, without 
 being obliged to wait for the setting of any doubtful 
 
 (4) 
 
cement, it was thought best to reduce the matter to 
 certainty by using Portland cement throughout the 
 piers. A variety of English and French Portland 
 cements was tried, but the result seemed equally good 
 with all, some difference in the rapidity of setting being 
 the principal variation. The stones already set were 
 taken up and relaid, and with the substitution of the 
 different cement, treated as before; the outer joints 
 being packed close, and the inside grouted until com- 
 pletely full. 
 
 At first the Portland cement was handled like 
 Rosendale in similar circumstances, the cement being 
 mixed rather dry, and after being put into the joints 
 with trowels, compressed as much as possible with 
 rammers; but further experience, and careful trials, 
 showed equally good results by first filling the larger 
 joints with a trowel and the dryer mortar, and then 
 mixing some rather rich cement, sufficiently liquid to 
 pour into the smaller joints from a bucket, stirring it 
 well with the thicker portion, until the whole was of a 
 medium consistency, and had penetrated every inter- 
 stice of the stone-work. Each course was levelled up 
 to a uniform surface with cement, and chips where 
 necessary, before the next course was begun, and the 
 upper bed of the third course from the top, and all the 
 vertical and horizontal joints of the two upper courses 
 where taken out of wind and pointed, so as to form a 
 perfectly close joint. 
 
 Toward the close of 1874, the four pyramids of 
 solid granite, each thirty-five feet square at the base 
 and seven feet square at the top, and seventeen feet 
 high, were completed; the main walls of the Church 
 being then well advanced, and the Chapel, which had 
 been urged forward with great rapidity, nearly finish- 
 ed. In the construction of other foundations than 
 those of the tower, the stones which had been brought 
 from the ruins of the old Church after the fire, were 
 utilized as far as possible; but the action of the heat 
 
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upon them had produced some curious results, very 
 unfavorable to their use in a new building. The stones 
 which were simply cracked through were easily 
 managed, but many of the stones, which when delivered 
 on the grounds were as square and neatly jointed as 
 any one could wish, on being placed in the wall let fall 
 large chips from the corners, concave on the side 
 toward the interior of the stone. These would be 
 followed by successive shells, separating like the coats 
 of an onion, and apparently of indefinite number. 
 
 This scaling took place first at the corners, and as 
 the concentric layers fell away, the stone was reduced 
 to a round ball, completely useless for building 
 purposes. The best and largest of the old stones, those 
 from the tower, had been most exposed to the fire and 
 were most subject to this defect. Even after a stone 
 had been safely placed in the wall, and was apparently 
 perfect, the imposition of the next course would some- 
 times cause shells to separate from the upper corners 
 of the stones already laid, so that the stones above them 
 rested on the summit of a convex surface, which if was 
 impossible to wedge up, and both courses had to be 
 removed. The only certain mode of testing the stones 
 was by striking them with a hammer, when the clear 
 ring of a sound stone could by a little experience be 
 distinguished from the dull note of blocks which con- 
 tained latent cracks. The defective stones were thus 
 separated from the sound, and rejected. 
 
 In November, 1874, the Chapel building was 
 finished, the transept, chancel and aisle walls, as well 
 as the western front, being then high above the ground. 
 During the winter, the stone for the remainder of the 
 building was cut, the larger portion of the work being 
 upon the granite for the upper part of the piers which 
 carry the tower. These were built of blocks of Westerly 
 granite, each five feet by two and one-half, and twenty 
 inches high, with hammered vertical and horizontal 
 joints. These were laid in cement, in pairs, forming 
 
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a pillar five feet square in section, the joints of alter- 
 nate courses crossing. For laying these piers and the 
 adjoining walls, as well as the arches between the piers, 
 a massive scaffold was built, standing independently 
 upon the four pyramids of the tower foundation. Four 
 derricks stood upon this structure, and not only the 
 pier stones, weighing two tons each, were easily 
 handled, but the same stage served afterward to carry 
 the centres for the great arches, and the whole super- 
 structure of scaffolding, to the very top of the tower, 
 no outside staging being used. This “great stage,” as 
 it was called, remained in place for more than two 
 years. 
 
 In the construction of the great arches, and for 
 tying the piers at their summit to the walls of the nave 
 and transept, iron was used, but sparingly, and as a 
 matter of precaution, rather than necessity, the 
 weights and points of application of the adjoining 
 walls having been calculated to furnish sufficient re- 
 sistance to the thrust of the arches, without the aid of 
 ties. In general, throughout the building, the use of 
 iron was avoided as far as might be, and with the ex- 
 ception of the staircase turret, which is supported by a 
 double set of iron beams over the vestibule below, no 
 masonry in the Church is dependant on metal for sup- 
 port. In the Chapel, where the exigencies of convenient 
 disposition demanded some wide spans, iron beams are 
 used, and one or two of the stone lintels are reinforced 
 by concealed girders. 
 
 Some changes in the design were made as the work 
 went on, in compliance with real or fancied necessities 
 of convenience or construction, and it is not out of 
 place to say, that the modifications of outline required 
 by the change in proportion of walls and tower thus 
 made, can hardly yet be considered as fully carried out, 
 so that the actual building at present lacks, perhaps, 
 the unity of the original design, without attaining a 
 new unity of its own. Especially is this the case with 
 
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regard to the western towers : a lowering of the Church 
 walls, made in hope of affording an additional guaran- 
 tee of good acoustic quality in the building, which was 
 felt to be a paramount consideration, changed the pro- 
 portion of walls and tower in a manner which should 
 have been counteracted by increasing the height of the 
 western front, including the towers which form a 
 part of it, and the amended drawings comprehended 
 this alteration as an aesthetic necessity, but the 
 increase of height not being a constructional necessity, 
 and the additional cost being of some importance, the 
 full completion of the design was, to the regret of all 
 parties, abandoned till some future time. 
 
 In modifying the internal form to meet the new 
 requirements, the present shape of ceiling was adopted 
 in place of that originally intended. In the modified 
 form the tie-beams cross the Church at the level of the 
 wall plate, coming at the cusps of the trefoil. 
 
 Although it was often suggested during the 
 progress of the work, that the great piers, at least, 
 should show the stone face apparent in the Church, 
 this has, nevertheless, from the first conception of the 
 design seemed in many ways undesirable, and propo- 
 sitions looking to that end have been, after careful 
 consideration, always finally rejected. A rich effect of 
 color in the interior was an essential element of the 
 design, and this could not be obtained in any practic- 
 able material without painting. Brickwork, which 
 might have been strong enough in color, would not have 
 endured the strain upon it, and the use of granite was 
 a necessity of construction. The cold, harsh effect of 
 this stone in the midst of the color decoration, could 
 not be tolerated, and as between painting directly on 
 the stone, and plastering it to secure a smooth surface, 
 it seemed decidedly preferable that there should be no 
 difference in texture between the piers and the other 
 walls, but that all should be plastered alike. The 
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
commonplace criticism that plaster “conceals construc- 
 tion/' can hardly be considered to apply here, for the 
 piers and arches being simply portions of the wall, it 
 would be difficult to show any reason for plastering the 
 other walls which would not apply equally to the 
 piers; and that the inner surface of the walls must in 
 all cases be exposed, is a dictum from which the most 
 conscientious would shrink. 
 
 In July, 1876, the last stone was laid in the tower. 
 The body of the Church had already been roofed in, 
 furred and plastered, and in the tower itself a bell deck 
 had been built, with a hatchway for hoisting. It 
 remained only to roof the tower, and give up the 
 building to the joiners and the decorators. The 
 design of the Church had always contemplated tile 
 roofing, at least for the towers, but it was with some 
 difficulty that an entirely suitable tile was found. 
 English tiles were imported as samples, but were 
 found too absorbent to be depended on in our trying 
 climate. A glazed or semi-glazed surface seemed 
 requisite, and this was at length found in an American 
 tile, made in Akron, Ohio, and affording some 
 advantages in closeness of cover, as well as in a 
 vitrified texture, incapable of absorbing moisture. The 
 color was also satisfactory in effect. 
 
 For the crockets, which relieved the dryness 
 of the outline, it was found necessary to send to a 
 distance also. Although not in themselves very large, 
 they were beyond the size of articles usually undertaken 
 by the Eastern potters, except the workers in fire-clay 
 which was unsuitable by its color; and arrangements 
 were made with the Chicago Terra Cotta Company 
 for their manufacture. Together with the crockets 
 were ordered hip rolls for the octagonal roof of the 
 main tower, and the square roofs of the western towers. 
 This commission was successfully executed, and the 
 crockets proved satisfactory in color and effect. While 
 this work was going on outside, the interior finishing 
 
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was pursued without interruption. The windows were 
 glazed with common glass, bordered by patterns of 
 colored glass, for temporary use only, it being hoped 
 that most, if not all the windows, would ultimately be 
 filled with memorial stained glass. 
 
 The Chapel room in the second story of the Chapel 
 building, is 47 feet by 63 feet 8 inches, with a vestibule 
 added at the north-east corner, 12 feet by 23, these two 
 rooms occupying the whole superficial area of the 
 building. 
 
 As soon as the building was enclosed, the negotia- 
 tions for the decoration, which had been pending for 
 some time, were concluded, and a definite contract was 
 entered into with Mr. John La Farge, by which he not 
 only undertook to design and supervise the work, but 
 made himself responsible for the whole expenditure, 
 purchasing the colors, employing all the subordinates, 
 from the hardly less distinguished gentlemen who 
 assisted him in his own special work, down to the little 
 boy of all work, who ran the errands and stirred the 
 barrels of color. This responsibility, formidable as 
 it must seem to a professional man wholly unused to 
 business affairs, was undertaken by Mr. La Farge, it 
 is fair to say, much less from any hope of pecuniary 
 profit, which he had little reason to expect, than from 
 a true artistic enthusiasm for a work so novel, and 
 affording such an opportunity for the highest exercise 
 of a painter’s talents ; and the task, so undertaken, was 
 pursued with great self devotion to a most successful 
 completion. 
 
 After the preliminary arrangements were made, 
 Mr. La Farge, preferring the completeness and 
 thoroughness of the work to his own pecuniary interest, 
 decided to paint all the better part of the decoration, 
 including of course the figures, with an encaustic 
 medium, consisting of wax, melted with turpentine, 
 alcohol, and Venice turpentine, in certain proportions, 
 instead of mixing the colors with an ordinary 
 
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distemper medium of water and size. 
 
 The encaustic process is much more costly, but 
 once done the colors protected by the wax are indes- 
 tructible. Even water flowing* over them, which would 
 utterly obliterate a distemper painting, scarcely affects 
 the encaustic colors. 
 
 With the greatest exertion on the part of the 
 artist, it was necessary to ask for an extension of the 
 time allowed by the contract for finishing the decor- 
 ation, and great as was the impatience of the par- 
 ish to take possession of their Church, after having 
 been for four years in a manner homeless, the desired 
 extension was kindly granted, and at the same time 
 a further appropriation of money was made, particul- 
 arly for the decoration of the roof, and for gilding 
 certain portions of the work, changes which the artist 
 thought desirable, but which were not included in the 
 original contract. These modifications were carried 
 out, and at last the work, which had excited great 
 interest among the public, was handed over to the 
 Committee. 
 
 As soon as the decoration was finished, the 
 scaffoldings were removed; and the pews and chancel 
 furniture, which were all made and ready to set up, 
 were rapidly put in place. Meanwhile the organ was 
 being fixed in position and tuned. 
 
 About the middle of the forenoon of February 
 1, 1877, the first timbers of the great stage, which had 
 been in place nearly two and a half years, were knocked 
 away, and on the morning of Saturday, February 3, the 
 whole had been removed. By the evening of February 
 8, everything was in readiness for the Consecration, 
 which took place the following day. 
 
 In plan, the Church as it stands is a Latin cross, 
 with a semicircular apse added to the eastern arm. 
 The arms of the cross are short, in proportion to their 
 width. In general, taking the square at the inter- 
 section of nave and transepts as a modulus, the total 
 
 ( 11 ) 
 
length of the auditorium is three squares, of which the 
 chancel, including the apse, forms one, the square at 
 the intersection another, and the nave a third, the 
 transepts being each half a square. Over the square 
 at the intersection stands the tower. The aisles would 
 be very narrow for a Gothic Church, but are in cha- 
 racter for the Romanesque, and are much more service- 
 able when thus reduced to passage-ways, than when 
 their width compels their being occupied by pews. The 
 clear-story is carried by an arcade of two arches only. 
 Above the aisles a gallery is carried across the arches, 
 which, from its position, was distinguished by the 
 names of the “triforium” gallery, and serves as a pas 
 sage to connect the three main galleries, one across 
 either transept, and one across the west-end of the 
 nave, over the vestibule. Both the west gallery and the 
 two triforium galleries connect with the staircases 
 which occupy the western towers, and the transept gal- 
 leries are also reached by special staircases, ascending, 
 one from a north-eastern vestibule, which serves as en- 
 trance both from Huntington Avenue directly and 
 from the cloister communicating with the Chapel, and 
 the other from a south-eastern vestibule entered from 
 St. James Avenue. The robing room opens from the 
 north-east vestibule, as well as from the chancel. The 
 main western vestibule is 52 feet long, the width of the 
 nave, without counting the lower story of the western 
 towers, which virtually form a part of it, and increase 
 its length to upwards of 86 feet. In the middle of the 
 west front is the main portal, and a secondary door 
 opens into each of the towers, giving thus three ent- 
 rances in the west front, and five double doors open 
 from the western vestibule into the Church. The upper 
 regions of the Church are reached by a winding stair 
 in the north-eastern turret of the great tower, starting 
 from the room over the north-east vestibule. This 
 lands at the bell deck over the flat ceiling which closes 
 the tower in the Church. The whole interior of the 
 
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Church and Chapel is finished in black walnut, and all 
 the vestibules in ash and oak. 
 
 The style of the Church may be characterized as 
 a free rendering of the French Romanesque, inclining 
 particularly to the school that flourished in the ele- 
 venth century in Central France, — the ancient Aqui- 
 taine, — which, secure, politically, on the one hand 
 from the Norman pirates, and on the other from the 
 Moorish invasions, as well as architecturally emanci- 
 pated from the influence of the classical traditions 
 and examples which still ruled the southern provinces, 
 developed in various forms a system of architecture of 
 its own, differing from the classical manner in that, 
 while it studied elegance, it was also constructional, 
 and from the succeeding Gothic, in that, although con- 
 structional, it could sacrifice something of mechanical 
 dexterity for the sake of grandeur and repose. 
 
 Among the branches of the Romanesque of Cen- 
 tral France, nowhere were the peculiar characteristics 
 of the style so strongly marked as in the peaceful, 
 enlightened and isolated cities of Auvergne. The cen- 
 tral tower, a reminiscence, perhaps, of the domes of 
 Venice and Constantinople, was here fully developed, 
 so that in many cases the tower became, as it were, 
 the Church, and the composition took the outline of 
 a pyramid, the apse, transepts, nave and chapels form- 
 ing only the base to the obelisk of the tower. 
 
 In studying the problem presented by a building 
 fronting on three streets, it appeared desirable that 
 the tower should be central, thus belonging equally to 
 each front, rather than putting it on any corner, 
 where, from at least one side, it would be nearly out of 
 sight; and in carrying out this motive, it was plain 
 that with the ordinary proportion of Church and tower, 
 either the tower must be comparatively small, which 
 would bring its supporting piers inconveniently into 
 the midst of the congregation, or the tower being large, 
 the rest of the Church must be magnified to inordinate 
 
 ( 13 ) 
 
proportions. For this dilemma the Auvergnat solution 
 seemed perfectly adapted. Instead of the tower being 
 an inconvenient and unnecessary addition to the 
 Church, it was itself made the main feature. The 
 struggle for precedence, which often takes place be- 
 tween a Church and its spire, was disposed of, by at 
 once and completely subordinating nave, transepts, 
 and apse, and grouping them about the tower as the 
 central mass. 
 
 The two great figures on the western facade, the 
 details of sculpture upon the transept ends, and the 
 tympana of the doors and windows, still remain un- 
 finished, and must be left for the future. But the 
 distinguishing characteristics of a style are indepen- 
 dent of details ; especially is this the case in the Roman- 
 esque, which in its treatment of masses, affords an 
 inexhaustible source of study quite independent of 
 its merits as a school of sculpture. 
 
 The Dimensions of the Church are as follows : 
 
 Feet Inches 
 
 Extreme width across transepts to outside 
 
 of walls 120 10 
 
 Width of west front 92 10 
 
 Width of nave from centre to centre of 
 
 piers of arcade 53 10 
 
 Width of aisles, from the inside of walls to 
 
 centre of piers of arcade 9 4 
 
 Extreme length of Church, outside to 
 
 outside of walls 159 11 
 
 Depth of chancel, from front of chancel 
 steps to the extremity of the apse, inside 
 the walls 57 5 
 
 Width of chancel, inside the walls 52 2 
 
 Width of transepts 51 10 
 
 Interior dimensions of tower, 46 feet 
 
 square; clear span of great arches 46 6 
 
 Height of great piers from Church floor 
 
 to spring of arches 36 3 
 
 ( 14 ) 
 
Height from floor to upper point of nave 
 
 ceiling 63 3 
 
 Height from floor to ceiling of tower 103 2 
 
 Height of exterior walls from ground line to 
 cornice 48 
 
 Height from ground line to cornice of 
 tower 121 5 
 
 Height from ground line to the highest stone 
 in the building 149 7 
 
 Height from ground line to topmost point of 
 finial 211 3 
 
 These were the dimensions of the church in 1877, before the 
 Galilee , western, Porch was added, twenty years later. 
 
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