Trinity Profile - 2026

BUILDINGS & GROUNDS

Buildings & Grounds

Trinity parish maintains two church complexes that are about three miles apart, both of which are listed on the National Historic Register. Worshipping in these beautiful spaces connects us with the past, present and future – or as we like to say, these spaces embody our “325+ years of faith in the city.”

Holy Trinity “Old Swedes” Church Holy Trinity “Old Swedes” Church encompasses approximately 3 acres of land on the corner of 7th and Church St. Construction on the church started in May 1698 with consecration on Trinity Sunday, 1699. It was built with local Brandywine granite (Delaware Blue Rock) and ballast from ships. It is one of only a few buildings of original Swedish Colonial architecture still standing today. The pulpit, built in 1699, is made from black walnut wood donated by the parishioners. It is the oldest pulpit in use in the United States. Buttresses on the north side were added in 1740 and on the south side to support the exterior walls which were buckling under the weight of the jerkinhead roof. The gallery was added in 1774 to accommodate the growing congregation with the staircase added to the exterior of the building. A brick bell tower with wooden belfry was added to the structure in 1803. The windows were replaced with stained glass in the late 1800s. The Bayard window on the south side is an original Louis Ti any creation. At some point in the early 1800s wooden benches replaced the original boxed seating to “modernize” the church. Those benches were removed in 1899 when the church was completely restored for its bicentennial and replica boxed seating was built bringing the church back to its original layout in 1699. The stone wall surrounding the burial ground was built in 1837 with funds left from the estate of Revolutionary War hero, Major Peter Jaquett. The burial grounds hold approximately 10,000 souls with over 1,200 stones standing. The oldest known legible stones date back to 1726. Most of the preservation and conservation work in the burial grounds is performed by the Old Swedes Foundation, a non-pro t organization founded in 1947, and is still on-going today.

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