“A magnificent edifice.” That’s how Trinity Cathedral in Downtown Pittsburgh was described in the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette when it opened the doors to its new building 150 years ago. The church has been a staple of the city’s Episcopal worshippers through several wars, industry changes, fires and floods.
The current building is the congregation’s third. The first, called the “round” church, opened in 1805. As the city entered the 19th century, its population was growing rapidly, and early European settlers wanted a place to worship.
“They were from all kinds of different traditions that were gathered from all around the world,” said Aidan Smith, dean of Trinity Cathedral. “Eventually, a priest was called out and sent here.”
The round church was built where the Wood Street T station is today and served congregants until 1825. Having outgrown that space, church leaders decided to move to land granted to them by the heirs of William Penn. The two-and-a-half lots between Smithfield and Wood streets had been given to the “Episcopal Protestant Church,” according to “Trinity & Pittsburgh: The history of Trinity Cathedral” by Helen L. Harriss.
John Henry Hopkins, considered by many to be the father of Gothic architecture in North America, was the church’s rector at the time. Hopkins designed the new building: a large, wooden gothic structure with three balconies, and able to seat about 1,000 people.
In the process of construction, bodies from the adjacent now-Trinity graveyard were exhumed and taken to other locations in the city, including Allegheny and Uniondale cemeteries. There aren’t many records from the time, so it’s not always clear who was taken where, but Smith said the site had been a burial ground for Native Americans, former soldiers at Fort Duquesne and early Pittsburgh families.
“Unfortunately that period of history has largely been written out of Pittsburgh’s history, and certainly out of the church’s history,” Smith said. “But it’s something that we’re trying to honor at this point.”
The Civil War slowed Pittsburgh’s expansion, but after it ended, the city quickly started growing. The congregation decided they needed a new building again. “There was a focus on building a new building because they had outgrown the old one,” Smith said. “And it had only been about 40 years.”
The third church, designed by Gordon W. Lloyd, was built on the same site as the second. With a price tag around $180,000, the new church was designed with similar aesthetics of the English Gothic style. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described it as a “beautiful and imposing structure” when it opened in 1872.
The church has a 200-foot spire, columns and piers of red sandstone, and hand-carved white mahogany pews. Pulpit panels include four sculpted evangelists and five clergy of Trinity, designed by architect Bertram Grosvenor Gooodhue. It also includes eight stained glass windows featuring Jesus Christ in different life situations. One, called Christ the Worker, depicts Jesus “working in a mill alongside bakers, ironworkers and welders.”
“That’s probably my favorite window in the entire space,” Smith said. “When they were making these design choices, they were trying to incorporate elements that were everyday elements of the industries of the people who worshiped here, so that they could connect their daily life with the life of the church.”
Other elements within the church reflect the city’s industrial roots, including the cross hanging above the altar area.
“The cross is made of steel, wood, aluminum, copper and glass,” Smith said. “Those all represent the major industries of Pittsburgh.”
In 1928, Trinity became the cathedral for the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, solidifying its place as the city’s “Mother Church,” as it was called in a 1935 article in The Cathedral Age.
Throughout the decades, Trinity would be a place where Pittsburghers would celebrate victories like the end of World War II, and come together to mourn the loss of Roberto Clemente and the events of 9/11. According to “Trinity & Pittsburgh,” during the Great St. Patrick’s Day Flood of 1936, parishioners reportedly grabbed important religious items and documents and moved them up floor-by-floor to keep them from the rising waters; the church was prepared to become a hospital during WWII, should the city ever need it. Through the years, it’s served as a site for AA meetings, as a women’s shelter and a home to a program that works with incarcerated people.
“We want to continue that tradition,” Smith said. “This is a public space for the people of Pittsburgh.”
While the church didn’t take part in large celebrations for the 150th anniversary, Smith said they’re looking forward to their centennial celebration of being the “Mother Church of the Diocese” in 2028.
