Trinity Church Receives Save America's Treasures Grant

Trinity Episcopal Church received a $178,615 grant from the Department of Interior, National Park Service (NPS) through the Save America’s Treasures (SAT) grant program, for the preservation/rehabilitation of this historic church. Sixty of these grants totaling $14.3 million were are awarded in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). With these funds, organizations and agencies conserve significant U.S. cultural and historic treasures, which illustrate, interpret and are associated with the great events, ideas, and individuals that contribute to our nation’s history and culture.

This grant fulfills the matching requirements of an earlier announced Environmental Protection Fund grant of $526,796 from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation awarded To Trinity Church, in addition to well over a million dollars the Congregation has invested in these historic treasures over the last ten years.

Built between 1884 and 1886, Trinity Episcopal Church is one of Buffalo’s historic Delaware Avenue churches that reflect the city’s late-nineteenth century transformation into a major industrial city. It is significant for art and architecture, and for its association with major designers and artists who produced the existing buildings on the church campus. The church complex is nationally significant as the site of a seminal program of opalescent glass and interior decoration by American master John La Farge. Trinity is a designated local landmark and is also listed on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places.  Trinity Campus is composed of three buildings: Christ Chapel, Trinity Episcopal Church (Sanctuary), and Trinity Place, constructed in 1870, 1886 and 1905 respectively. 

“Western New York is home to fantastic architectural and historical features and over the last several years the federal Save America’s Treasures program has benefited several including: the Richardson Complex, the Darwin Martin House and the Historical Society’s Pan-Am Building,” said Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-27), Co-Chair of the Congressional Revitalizing Older Cities Task Force.  “Trinity Episcopal Church, beautifully designed and rich with history, is the latest and sadly could be the last site to receive these funds which ensure our regional and national irreplaceable structures are preserved.”

The awarding of this grant is bittersweet, as the National Parks Service has just announced the end of the Save America’s Treasures Program - a victim to the new Congress and the ensuing budget battles. For the past twelve years, Save America’s Treasures has been one of the country’s most important and effective historic preservation efforts, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars for restoration to nationally significant historic sites and special collections in all parts of the U.S.  Among the more than 1,200 prestigious projects in which SAT at the Trust has played a critical role are: the restoration of the Star Spangled Banner, San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers, Martin Luther King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the Acoma Pueblo. Other beneficiaries have been the homes of such literary icons as Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, Louisa May Alcott and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The specific elements of the grant to Trinity Church include:

• The installation of a new drainage/grading system to alleviate flooding and water infiltration and the repair of the exterior foundation at these locations. 
• The replacement of the Trinity Place roof, repair of the Christ Chapel roof, and repair of roof sections over the Alter/Apse areas of Trinity Church.
• Glass protective covering for the front stained glass window of the tower
• Exterior window and eaves repair/painting
• The restoration of the Undercroft (basement) to update mechanicals and correct interior water infiltration problems.

The Undercroft, representing approximately 65% of Trinity’s program space, has been unusable for several years because of extensive water damage and poor ventilation. As the Trinity outreach mission continues to expand, there is a need to better utilize this wasted space for growing ministries of the parish and the surrounding community.  Therefore, the project aims not only to stop further deterioration of Trinity but also to fully utilize a major interior space of this historic inner-city church.