from Trinity Topics, March 2009

This year, the History Committee is taking an active part in the recogni-tion of the Centennial of Trinity Church. The historians are gathering information about the early years, and about the changes in the church and the Bloomington community.

We know that for two years, starting in 1871, a priest was assigned to serve an unorganized congregation of Episcopalians. The group bought a lot at the edge of town, on the corner of Seventh Street and College Avenue and built a small frame building. Can you imagine what Bloomington was like then? Was the county court-house a block away? How often was there a priest among those folks over the next few years?

We also know that church was sold in 1889 and another lot purchased. This time the group chose a position halfway between the courthouse and the entrance to Indiana University, on the corner of Kirkwood and Grant. There they built another frame church, with a spire on top. It was surely a step up for the yet "unorganized congregation." It must have been a sturdy building because it lasted 80 years, its existence over-lapping the construction of the stone church we now know at that corner.

We know that at the Diocesan Convention of 1894, a new mission, Trin-ity Church Bloomington, was for-mally received as part of the Diocese of Indianapolis. What did this mission do over the next 15 years? A mystery!

In 1909 the frame church was moved to the south of the lot for the next 60 years, becoming in sequence the vicarage, rectory, chaplain's home, sexton's home, and finally Sunday School rooms, while the new stone church took the corner spot. Does anyone who was here before 1970 remember that cruciform building with plenty of windows, the spire removed?

We are proud to now celebrate the Centennial of that building in 2009–10. The History Committee* will be asking your help, with any of your memories, ancient and modern, and pictures and artifacts.

What do YOU remember? More answers about the past and questions raised will come in future Topics.

*Committee members: Gates Agnew, Kitty BUrkhart, John Johnson, Nancy Ryafield, Chuck Watson, and Liz Winkler.