history of trinity episcopal church, collinsville
The first Episcopal service in Collinsville was celebrated by visiting priests from New Hartford and Trinity College on January 29, 1854. Services were held on a sporadic basis, at various locations through 1875, when the parish of Trinity, Collinsville, was accepted into the Diocese of Connecticut and construction began on our church building on Maple Avenue. The first service in the new church was held on May 14, 1876.
The wooden church building is best described as Carpenter Gothic Revival. It has a number of fine, stained glass windows including a beautiful rose window and a bell tower. It sits on three landscaped acres with a memorial garden and a playground. The sanctuary seats 175. In 1905, a Rectory was built on Thayer Avenue. Many improvements were made to the church over the ensuing sixty years and the congregation grew in number.
By 1964, Trinity was faced with a number of challenges regarding its location and space. The church and parish hall were located on a busy street. Additional space was needed for parking, church school rooms, choir vesting, a new kitchen, and other capital improvements. The response was a major fund drive called “On the Move” which resulted in the relocation of the church building one mile down the road to its present site on River Road. At the end of the “On the Move” campaign, the Parish voted to build an addition, consisting of six classrooms and a parish hall.
In 1986 one of our families donated and erected a new steeple for the church to replace the original that had deteriorated and fallen off years before. “Trinity Tomorrow Today,” our last capital fund drive, involved an expansion plan begun in 1988. It comprised a new Narthex, a choir vesting room, rooms for the Canton Food Bank and Bethany Pastoral Counseling Services, additional church school rooms and staff offices, an office machine room and a refurbished office for the Rector. Bishop Clarence Coleridge dedicated the new addition on January 13, 1991. The Rectory on Thayer Avenue was sold in the fall of 1997.
See the Move
This video is a converted home movie created in 1964 by the Penfield family when the church building was physically moved from Maple Avenue to its current location on River Road. Video provided by Walter and Phyllis Lowell.