Dusty Buildings

To see other architecturally significant historical buildings, click HERE:

When a civilization ends, it does not leave behind a tombstone. Instead, it leaves stackings of stones (i.e. buildings.) We lose the remembrance of individual people, the things they said, did, and wrote, but we remember what they built because those things endure for much longer. The Ancient Greeks and Romans tell us about themselves through their Classical Architecture. We remember the Medieval period in Europe from its castles and Gothic Cathedrals. We remember the early 20th century from the Art Deco buildings it left behind. The style tells us something about their priorities, what they believed, what they knew, and what their hopes were. In a sense, the buildings that a culture leaves behind are a kind of epitaph.

Let’s look through the structural epitaphs of our ancestors.

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Trinity Church (Boston, MA)

Location	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Coordinates	42°21′0″N 71°4′32″W
Built	1872–77
Architect	Henry Hobson Richardson
Architectural style	Richardsonian Romanesque

This gorgeous Church is built in a style named after its architect.

Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th- and 12th-century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque characteristics. Richardson first used elements of the style in his Richardson Olmsted Complex in Buffalo, New York, designed in 1870, and Trinity Church in Boston is his most well-known example of this medieval revival style. Multiple architects followed in this style in the late 19th century; Richardsonian Romanesque later influenced modern styles of architecture as well.

So we’re dealing here with something that is both traditional and new. I love the arches, and the patterns present on the brick facade. The roofs are spectacular as well.

In addition to the architecture, the Church is also famous for its art and its music (like any great church in the U.S., it has great organs.)

For more on the church, and its design – via wiki:

Trinity Church in the City of Boston, located in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. The congregation, currently standing at approximately 4,000 households, was founded in 1733. Three services are offered each Sunday, and weekday services are offered once a week from September through June. Within the spectrum of worship styles in the Anglican tradition, Trinity Church has historically been considered a Broad Church parish.

In addition to worship, the parish is actively involved in service to the community, pastoral care, programs for children and teenagers, and Christian education for all ages. The church is home to several high-level choirs, including the Trinity Choir, Trinity Schola, Trinity Choristers, and Trinity Chamber Choir. The building, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, is currently under study for becoming a Boston Landmark.

History

After its former site on Summer Street burned in the Great Boston Fire of 1872, the current church complex was erected under the direction of Rector Phillips Brooks (1835–1893), one of the best-known and most charismatic preachers of his time.

The church and parish house were designed by Henry Hobson Richardson and construction took place from 1872 to 1877, when the complex was consecrated. Situated on Copley Square in Back Bay, Trinity Church is the building that established Richardson’s reputation. It is the birthplace and archetype of the Richardsonian Romanesque style, characterized by a clay roof, polychromy, rough stone, heavy arches, and a massive tower. This style was soon adopted for a number of public buildings across the United States. The stone used was Dedham Granite.

Stanford White, then working in H.H. Richardson’s office, designed the current main tower of the Trinity Church of Boston in 1872, basing it on the romanesque tower of the Old Cathedral of Salamanca (Spain).

According to L.C. Norton, the inventor of door checks, the heavy main entrance doors of Trinity Church were the first to be fitted with a quiet and effective means to resist slamming. This led to a patented pneumatic door check that was seen throughout the 1880s to 1910s. Norton’s door check device eventually developed into the modern door closer with his guidance in both the Norton Door Controls and LCN companies.

Art and architecture

The building’s plan is a modified Greek Cross with four arms extending outwards from the central tower, which stands 64 m (211 ft) tall. The church is situated in Copley Square, and since the 1970s, in the shadow of the John Hancock Tower. Having been built in Boston’s Back Bay, which was originally a mud flat, Trinity rests on some 4,500 wooden piles, each driven through 30 feet of gravel fill, silt, and clay, and constantly wetted by the water table of the Back Bay as they will rot if exposed to air.

The central portal may have been modeled on that of Saint Trophîme at Arles,

Its interior murals, which cover over 21,500 square feet (2,000 m²) were completed entirely by American artists. Richardson and Brooks decided that a richly colored interior was essential and turned to John La Farge (1835–1910) for help. La Farge had never performed a commission on this scale, but realized its importance and asked only for his costs to be covered. The results established La Farge’s reputation.

The church’s windows were originally clear glass at consecration in 1877, with one exception, but soon major windows were added. Four windows were designed by Edward Burne-Jones and executed by the studio of William Morris. Another four windows were exceptional commissions by John La Farge, and revolutionized window glass with their layering of opalescent glass. The Suter window (donated by Hales W. Suter) was painted by Charles Mills.

Trinity Church is the only church in the United States and the only building in Boston that has been honored as one of the “Ten Most Significant Buildings in the United States” by the American Institute of Architects. In 1885, architects voted Trinity Church as the most important building in the U.S.; Trinity Church is the only building from the original 1885 list still included in the AIA’s current top ten list. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 30, 1970.

The church also houses sculptures by Daniel Chester French and Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

In popular culture

In 1985 Trinity Church was featured in the opening scene of the second television episode portraying novelist Robert B. Parker‘s character— Boston’s preeminent detective, Spenser— in Spenser For Hire: “No Room at the Inn”.

Interior scenes from the 1999 thriller The Boondock Saints were filmed within Trinity Church.

The church was featured in the 2015 video game Fallout 4.

The Trinity Church was prominently shown in Reba McEntire‘s 1986 music video for “Whoever’s in New England“.

For a really fun virtual tour of the building, I recommend the following:

And here’s another with some more detail:

One final video – this time where you can hear that famous organ playing: