Trinity Episcopal Church (234 Spring Garden Street)

Trinity Episcopal Church (234 Spring Garden Street) The original Episcopal congregation began meeting periodically in private homes in 1798, but services lapsed after 1806. In 1818 they were resumed in the Spring Garden house owned by Easton notable Samuel Sitgreaves.1  Sitgreaves had moved his home in 1817, the prior year, to his “Sitgreaves Folly” Mansion on Northampton Street.2 (Photo by Richard F. Hope) The original church building was built in 1820 on land donated by Mr. Sitgreaves on the site of his carriage yard and orchard. It was known as the “White Church”, after its whitewashed walls.3 This name also constitutes a (perhaps unintended) double meaning, because the church was consecrated by the first Episcopal Bishop of Pennsylvania whose name was William White.4 The church building was replaced in 1871. After a fire in 1873, it was replaced again in 1875 by the present church building,5 built in “Gothic Revival” architectural style.6 It was remodeled in 1901 by church member and Easton architect William Marsh Michler.7 1 Louis T. Stableford, Samuel Sitgreaves and the Founding of Trinity Episcopal Church, Easton, Pennsylvania 2-3 (typewritten pamphlet 10 June 1979)(copy in files of Easton Heritage Alliance). 2 See separate entry for 237-39 Northampton Street. 3 Dr. Elinor Warner, Easton, Pennsylvania Walking Tour, for Pennsylvania Art Education Association Conference 2000, http://www.kutztown.edu/paea/paeaconf/2000/easton/walk_tour.html (accessed 4 Jan. 2005); accord, Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 152 (George W. West 1885); Marie and Frank Summa & Leonard Buschemi, Sr., Images of America: Historic Easton 118 (Arcadia Publishing 2000); A Brief History & Architectural Tour of EASTON, PENNSYLVANIA www.easton- pa.com/History/HistoricEaston.htm, “Trinity Episcopal Church” (accessed 2 Jan. 2005); Stableford, Samuel Sitgreaves and the Founding of Trinity Episcopal Church, Easton, Pennsylvania, supra at 4. 4 Stableford, Samuel Sitgreaves and the Founding of Trinity Episcopal Church, Easton, Pennsylvania, supra at 4. 5 Warner, Easton, Pennsylvania Walking Tour, supra; Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a, supra; A Brief History & Architectural Tour of EASTON, supra; Stableford, Samuel Sitgreaves and the Founding of Trinity Episcopal Church, Easton, Pennsylvania, supra at 4; see also City of Easton, Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey Form, Attachment: Building Description Survey Area 1 Zone E (City Council Resolution approved 12 May 1982)(built c.1874). 6 City of Easton, Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey Form, Attachment: Building Description Survey Area 1 Zone E (City Council Resolution approved 12 May 1982). 7 See Hannah D. Zabitz, “William March [sic] Michler: A Retrospective”, in Historic Easton, Inc. Annual House Tour: William Marsh Michler A Retrospective 3-6, Table at back of pamphlet (17 May 1986).