National Register Listing

Trinity Church

a.k.a. Trinity Episcopal Church

3404 S. Main St., Houston, TX

Trinity Episcopal Church is significant as an outstanding example of Neo-Gothic church architecture designed by the prominent Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram, who was nationally known for his ecclesiastical designs. The seat of the third oldest Episcopal parish in Houston, Trinity has supplied the Episcopal Church with five Bishops during the course of its history, and a number of its parishioners have entered the priesthood. Its importance as an influential religious institution in the Houston community and the high quality of its design combine to make Trinity a local landmark.

Trinity Church was one of the few archeologically conscientious attempts to produce a Texas church fashioned after the ecclesiastical architecture of 13th-century England. In the early 19th century the principles of Gothic architecture had been put forth as particularly appropriate to the tradition and liturgy of the Anglican church. Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942), as a young architect in Boston during the 1880s, was so inspired by the Gothic Revival that he became one of its chief proponents. As the principal designer for his architectural firm, his example was so persuasive that it helped launch a second revival of Gothic architecture in the U.S., commonly called Neo-Gothic to distinguish it from the earlier revival which flourished in 1840. Neo-Gothic buildings became quite popular for churches and academic structures.

As a theorist, Cram's strong religious convictions motivated his architectural designs. As a practitioner, he insisted on the highest quality of materials and craftsmanship in his buildings. In Trinity Church, both of these qualities came together. In 1901 his firm, then called Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson, was commissioned to design an overall plan, and the initial buildings, for Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Virginia. The next year the firm won a major competition to redesign the campus of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In 1906, Cram was appointed by Woodrow Wilson as supervising architect of Princeton University, where he later designed the Graduate College. The Episcopal Bishop of New York named Cram to the position of consulting architect for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 1912, upon which he worked until his death in 1942. Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson (Cram and Ferguson, after 1913) designed important ecclesiastical and educational buildings throughout the U.S. in the years between 1911 and 1930, including a series of Anglican cathedrals (at Halifax, Nova Scotia; Havana, Cuba; and Detroit) and parish churches (Emmanuel, Cleveland; Calvary, Pittsburgh; St. Thomas, New York; and others).

In 1909, Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson became involved in two design projects in Texas: Rice Institute in Houston and the Church of St. Helena in Boerne. While only the Rice Institute was built, the unexecuted design for the church in Boerne was published in 1909 in the prominent British architectural periodical Architectural Review. Upon receiving the commission for Rice, Cram established an office in Houston and dispatched William Ward Watkin (1886-1952), a member of the firm, to superintend the construction. When Rice Institute opened in 1912, Watkin, who was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, was appointed to the faculty to begin a department of architecture. He remained in Houston in this capacity until his death. Watkin was a parishioner of Trinity Church and was probably responsible for obtaining the commission in 1917 to design a permanent church for the parish.

The chosen site was a corner lot at the intersection of Holman Avenue and Main Boulevard. The latter was Houston's principal thoroughfare and had just been transformed into a paved esplanade in the South End. Watkin appears to have been involved to an unusual degree in the design of the church, as surviving correspondence between Cram and Watkin indicates. At the time of its completion in 1919, Trinity lacked the upper stages of the side tower and the full array of interior appointments. These were eventually completed according to Watkin's designs. The altar and reredos, carved by the sculptor Oswald J. Lassig, who had worked on the stone carving at Rice Institute, were dedicated in 1920 in memory of the Rev. Robert E. Lee Craig. Craig was a former rector of Trinity Church and had been responsible for the purchase of a suitable site and for commissioning a nationally prominent architectural firm. He died in 1916 before construction was begun. The Ralston Memorial Tower was completed and dedicated in 1921. Other gifts made possible the installation of an elaborate brass altar rail and a Pilcher pipe organ, which were installed in these early years. The handsomely carved wood pulpit and lectern were saved from the Trinity Church of 1902. Watkin ceased his affiliation with Cram and Ferguson in 1919. He collaborated with them, however, on the design of Autry House in 1921, and of the Julia Ideson Building of the Houston Public Library in 1926. The last of these structures is listed in the National Register. Cram and Ferguson, without Watkin's assistance, also designed the Cleveland Sewall residence in River Oaks in 1925. The Sewall house is also listed in the National Register. On a trip to Spain in the early 1920s, Cram became fascinated with Spanish architecture, and these later Houston buildings all give evidence of that infatuation. Thus Trinity Church is the only Neo-Gothic structure built in Texas to Cram's design.

William Ward Watkin's career in Houston led him to design the Palmer Memorial Chapel, the Central Church of Christ, and the Golding Chapel of Christ Church Cathedral. He also designed St. Mark Episcopal Church in Beaumont. Watkin's interest in church design is also reflected in the two books he authored: The Church of Tomorrow (1935) and Planning and Building the Modern Church (1951).

Trinity Church is the third-oldest parish of the Episcopal Church in Houston, having been established under the auspices of Christ Church as the Mission of the Holy Trinity in 1893 to serve parishioners who had moved to the South End. Until 1896 services and Sunday school had been held in the houses of parishioners, and then in a rented school. The first church building, located at the corner of Louisiana and Drew, was built in 1896. It was destroyed in the 1900 hurricane, rebuilt in 1902, and moved in 1910 to the site on which the present church stands. This property, which is part of the Obedience Smith Survey, was purchased in 1910 for $13,000. The house which was included in the purchase and located on the corner of Fannin and Holman was used as a rectory and then as parish offices until it was demolished in the late 1940s for a new building. Craig, who made the purchase of this property a prerequisite for his coming to Trinity, was succeeded after his death by the Rev. Clinton S. Quin. Quin arrived in Houston in January 1917, to approve Cram and Ferguson's final plans and to guide the church through the major construction. The old church was moved across Holman Avenue. In May of 1918, Quin was elected Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of Texas at the Diocesan Council, which was held in the recently completed parish house of Trinity Church. Later rectors were also of some importance in the Episcopal Church.

The Rev. Charles Clingman of Dallas came to Trinity and was Rector at the time the church was completed. He remained until 1924 and went on to become Bishop of Kentucky. Three subsequent rectors also went from Trinity to the House of Bishops: Thomas N. Carruthers, South Carolina; Harry Doll, Maryland; and Richard S. Watson, Utah. The Rev. Claude W. Sprouse, Rector from 1924 to 1931, served as President of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church and died during his acceptance speech at the beginning of his second term.

The community services of the church have been directed by the Women of the Church. This group purchased the adjacent William Hamman house on Main Street and operated the Guild Shoppe there. The facility was used for the housing, feeding, and entertainment of servicemen during World War II. The Hamman house was demolished and replaced by the Fellowship Hall and the adjoining Youth Center in 1950. Several very prominent Houstonians have worshipped at Trinity, among them Frank P. Sterling, cofounder of the Humble 011 and Refining Company. Texas Chief Justice Joe D. Greenhill, and famed heart surgeon Dr. Denton A. Cooley.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1983.