Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 211 Trinity Place, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA / Built: 1924 / Architect: L. Phillips Clarke / Contractor: Wilcox Bros. Inc. / Architectural Style: Spanish Colonial Revival
This beautiful church was incorporated in 1923. Work was started the same year toward a new edifice and was completed in 1924. The rectory was moved north to parallel the construction, facing the lake.
L. Phillips Clarke, of Harvey and Clarke, was the architect for the new church, as he was later for the new parish hall in 1929 and for the new rectory and Sunday School rooms built later. Wilcox Bros. Inc., the contractor, built the church and also did repair work after it suffered hurricane damage in 1928.
The marble and mosaic work was done by craftsmen from Italy, who brought much of the material with them. Louis S. Clarke (whose father, C. J. Clarke, had donated the community building in which the original church group met, and whose son was the architect for the present building) made the chandeliers for the church by hand, together with the chains by which they hang, all of which he forged himself. The marble altar and the original Skinner organ were made possible by generous donations.
On February 24, 1924, the first service was held in the new church. The old church building was then used as a parish hall until it was destroyed in the hurricane of September 1928.
Some features that identify it as the original church building are the arch detail over the entrance, the screen doors, and one of the small front windows.
In May 1929 work was started on the first two units of a new parish hall. The cornerstone was laid on July 14th and work was completed in September. A choir room, kitchen quarters, and a new rectory were added in 1939. Funding for and work on the Sunday school rooms which frame the current courtyard commenced in 1948.
The collapse of the land boom in 1926, the killer hurricane in 1928, and the stock market crash of 1929 brought development to a halt in the region. Holy Trinity, holding a large debt for the new building, endured a very difficult struggle and at one point foreclosure was threatened. However, in 1938 as the depression waned, the debt was restructured and disaster was averted.
The formal consecration of the church was held on April 29, 1945, after the mortgage was retired. The event was hailed in the press as "the high point in the history of the Episcopal congregation in West Palm Beach." The consecration services were conducted by Bishop John D. Wing of the Diocese of South Florida, before a congregation that packed the building. The Rev. William S. Turner was rector at that time.
Memorials and gifts throughout the years, too numerous to detail in this limited space, have enhanced the beauty of the church. A large Skinner organ was added to the original organ in 1939, and other additions were subsequently made. The stained glass windows were installed over a period spanning sixty years, with the first window, the large rose window over the altar, being installed in 1924. The most ambitious window addition program occurred in the 1950s with the Rev. James Stirling as Rector. The most recently installed windows, in the south wall of the Baptistry, were installed in 1984.
Having originally been started with the help of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, Holy Trinity has in turn through the years helped start five other Episcopal churches in the area: St. Andrews Church, Lake Worth, St. Georges, Riviera Beach, St. Marks, Palm Beach Gardens, The Church of the Holy Spirit, West Palm Beach, and Grace Episcopal Church, West Palm Beach.
Credit for the data above is given to the following people and websites:
www.flickr.com/photos/59081381@N03/https://en.wikipedia.o...www.holytrinitywpb.org/our-history
www.flickr.com/photos/59081381@N03/
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church Columbarium
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 211 Trinity Place, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA / Built: 1924 / Architect: L. Phillips Clarke / Contractor: Wilcox Bros. Inc. / Architectural Style: Spanish Colonial Revival
This beautiful church was incorporated in 1923. Work was started the same year toward a new edifice and was completed in 1924. The rectory was moved north to parallel the construction, facing the lake.
L. Phillips Clarke, of Harvey and Clarke, was the architect for the new church, as he was later for the new parish hall in 1929 and for the new rectory and Sunday School rooms built later. Wilcox Bros. Inc., the contractor, built the church and also did repair work after it suffered hurricane damage in 1928.
The marble and mosaic work was done by craftsmen from Italy, who brought much of the material with them. Louis S. Clarke (whose father, C. J. Clarke, had donated the community building in which the original church group met, and whose son was the architect for the present building) made the chandeliers for the church by hand, together with the chains by which they hang, all of which he forged himself. The marble altar and the original Skinner organ were made possible by generous donations.
On February 24, 1924, the first service was held in the new church. The old church building was then used as a parish hall until it was destroyed in the hurricane of September 1928.
Some features that identify it as the original church building are the arch detail over the entrance, the screen doors, and one of the small front windows.
In May 1929 work was started on the first two units of a new parish hall. The cornerstone was laid on July 14th and work was completed in September. A choir room, kitchen quarters, and a new rectory were added in 1939. Funding for and work on the Sunday school rooms which frame the current courtyard commenced in 1948.
The collapse of the land boom in 1926, the killer hurricane in 1928, and the stock market crash of 1929 brought development to a halt in the region. Holy Trinity, holding a large debt for the new building, endured a very difficult struggle and at one point foreclosure was threatened. However, in 1938 as the depression waned, the debt was restructured and disaster was averted.
The formal consecration of the church was held on April 29, 1945, after the mortgage was retired. The event was hailed in the press as "the high point in the history of the Episcopal congregation in West Palm Beach." The consecration services were conducted by Bishop John D. Wing of the Diocese of South Florida, before a congregation that packed the building. The Rev. William S. Turner was rector at that time.
Memorials and gifts throughout the years, too numerous to detail in this limited space, have enhanced the beauty of the church. A large Skinner organ was added to the original organ in 1939, and other additions were subsequently made. The stained glass windows were installed over a period spanning sixty years, with the first window, the large rose window over the altar, being installed in 1924. The most ambitious window addition program occurred in the 1950s with the Rev. James Stirling as Rector. The most recently installed windows, in the south wall of the Baptistry, were installed in 1984.
Having originally been started with the help of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, Holy Trinity has in turn through the years helped start five other Episcopal churches in the area: St. Andrews Church, Lake Worth, St. Georges, Riviera Beach, St. Marks, Palm Beach Gardens, The Church of the Holy Spirit, West Palm Beach, and Grace Episcopal Church, West Palm Beach.
Credit for the data above is given to the following people and websites:
www.flickr.com/photos/59081381@N03/https://en.wikipedia.o...www.holytrinitywpb.org/our-history
www.flickr.com/photos/59081381@N03/
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church Columbarium