TRINITY CHURCH

Trinity Church, one of the oldest churches in America, has a spire of 281 feet that was once the highest point in Manhattan and also the tallest building in the United States.  The church's spire dominated the city's skyline and can be seen in a number of paintings of New York City during this period.   In 1890, the spire's height was surpassed by the Saint Michael's Church in Chicago.  That same year  the New York World Building, also known as the Pulitzer Building, became Manhattan's highest building at a height of 348 feet.     

Trinity Church was established in 1697 as the first Episcopal church in New York City and was once the wealthiest landowner in New York City.  The original church was destroyed by fire in 1776 during the Revolutionary War and rebuilt in 1790.  Heavy snows damaged its structure during the bad winters of 1838 - 1839 and the church had to be torn down.  The current Neo-Gothic design by architect Richard Upjohn, was completed in 1846.  The brown sandstones used for construction were brought from New Jersey and hoisted up by marine equipment loaned by the notorious pirate, Captain William Kidd.

Alexander Hamilton and his family worshipped here and he did free legal work for the church.  Ron Chernow, author of the well known biography of Hamilton, notes that the area around Trinity Church was once a notorious red-light district with houses of ill repute.  Ladies of the night walked the streets each evening and location was widely known as the "Holy Ground."  Hamilton and his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler, are buried in the church's graveyard as is steamboat inventor Robert Fulton. 

In the early 18th Century, Trinity Church set up a school for Native Americans and enslaved people, and in the late 18th Century one for freed Africian Americans.

In 2006, a British bell-ringing lover gave Trinity a million-dollar donation for the restoration of a hand-rung (rope-pulling) bell system.  This new system of 12 bells replaced mechanical bells that were installed after World War II.  The heaviest bell weighs 2,700 pounds.