Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church

 church, Romanesque (architecture), interesting place, 1912_construction, Byzantine Revival (architecture)

Romanesque/Byzantine-revival style Roman Catholic Church completed in 1912. Designed by Joseph Hubert McGuire, construction actually began in 1899, with the basement level completed by 1900. Further construction was halted due to lack of funding, not restarting for another decade. Its interior includes structural elements by the Guastavino Fireproof Tile Co.

The front facade is clad in light-brown brick and tan terra-cotta, which is banded across the end towers to create a striped effect, with each band decorated by a row of small crosses within circles. The base of the church is grey granite, with a wide, low granite set of steps in front. At the center is a grand arch that dominates the facade and encloses a rose window and the three main entrances below, each with a set of elaborately paneled and decorated bronze double-doors topped by round-arches that are filled by a cross-hatch pattern with small rosettes at each intersection. Three separate layers of moldings outline the arches, with leafy keystones at the tops and green-tinted discs in the corners above the arches, enveloped by bas-relief foliate ornament. Between the three entry arches are paired columns with Corinthian capitals; nestled between the columns are a pair of iron-and-glass lanterns, with signboards fronting the joined bases of the columns. A broad band course tops the arches, topped by a decorated cornice above an egg-and-dart molding, projecting out above the two sets of columns. The three panels created by the separation of the projecting sections have carved lettering reading: GLORIA PATRI - ET FILIO ET - SPIRITUISO. The next section of the grand arch has three smaller arches in each of the three bays, with the arches springing from extravagant columns with cross-hatching and rosettes, and Corinthian capitals. Filling each arch is a stone lattice arranged around a central circle. A pair of niches separates the three bays, atop the large columns below, and each is framed by squared pilasters with Corinthian capitals, and contains a bronze statue. Peaked pediments crowned by finials top the niches, and are connected by a modillioned cornice in between and extending to either side. Above this rising the grand rose window with stained-glass and terra-cotta tracery, with a gilded field on either side that is ornamented with a pattern of interlocking circles.

The two corner towers flanking the grand arch enclose gallery stairways, and have their own entrances, with narrow bronze doors. Directly above these doors are small paired windows with a light fixture mounted in between them. Higher up, flanking the grand arch, are very narrow vertical slits of leaded-glass circles framed by engaged colonnettes with small round-arches at the tops. A projecting, modillioned cornice caps the main shaft of both towers, with the cornice continuing up at an angle to a peak above the grand arch in the center, where it is crowned by a cross. On the underside of the cornice is a small egg-and-dart molding, below which is an arcade of round-arches open to the sky behind, seven on each side, marching up along the angle toward the slightly taller center arch. The corner towers are topped by Greek-inspired copper cupolas.

At both ends, the east- and west-facing sides of the corner towers have narrow slit windows that match those on the south facade. Below is a 3-sided projecting section topped by a small copper roof. The piers framing each facet of these sections are also banded with terra-cotta. The 45-degree angled facets have narrow round-arched stained-glass windows near the base and up near the copper roof, while the east- and west-facing facets have another round-arched window located halfway between the height of the other two. The granite base of the church extends out past these angled projections, with iron gateways at the ends.

The rear areas of the church are clad in plain buff-colored brick and extend out wider than the front facade, with a number of round-arched windows. At the center is a massive dome supported by eight large columns. The architect, McGuire, filled the interior with tiles, flat-paneled oaken woodwork, herring-bone brick wall panels, and the earthy ochres, pinks and greens of the wonderful terra-cotta columns, with floors of mosaic, marble and terrazzo. From seventy feet above the floor light streams down from a stained-glass oculus in the center of the dome.