Trinity Episcopal Church

From the Woodrow Wilson site we went to the Trinity Episcopal Church and Thorn Rose Cemetery. When Mary found that the church was blessed with a number of Tiffany stained glass windows, we had to make sure we paid a visit.  We began our tour in the cemetery which is next to the church. 

Then we tried the front door and found it locked so we headed around the side toward the church office where we found the brick labyrinth. There we coincidentally met a staff person who let us enter the church from the side door. 

This Episcopal congregation dates from the mid-1700s and this building was built in 1855. It is a beautiful old church which has magnificent stained glass windows all around the sanctuary which feature prominently in our pictures.

Facing the front door of the church

Facing the altar

Adoration Window - The Three Wise Men

The Nativity

Benedicite Window

Lewis Comfort Tiffany was at his best with landscapes and introduced landscape windows into churches  just after the turn of the century.  Especially notable in the window is the “confetti glass, which adds depth, texture and interest to the landscape.

The Ascension

The three windows above the altar in the central chancel form a composition of the Ascension of Christ. This window is perhaps the finest Tiffany Window at Trinity because it contains an unusually large variety of types of glass, and incorporates some of the best drapery glass Tiffany ever used.  The painter of the window may have been Frederick Wilson, one of the lead painters of Tiffany's Studio.

The Nativity and Adoration Windows were planned so that the two windows create a single scene, yet each lancet is interesting in its own right.  These windows were made by the J&R Lamb Studios although they were done 40 years apart.

On the left:  The Benedicite window as described above.

On the right:   The Archangel Michael lancet is an example of Tiffany’s Warrior Angel series of windows.  St. Michael holds in his left hand a palm branch indicating victory of life over death.  The inscription reads, “Thine, O Lord is the Victory”. 

The Good Samaritan window

The Easter Morn Windows

This pair of windows depicts the dramatic scene of the three Marys at the empty tomb of Christ on Easter morning and face the Nativity of Christ in the corresponding pair of windows across the nave. The story of the appearance of the angel to the three women at the tomb appears in all four Gospels; this composition draws from the account of Mark.  The Easter Morn pair is an excellent example of Tiffany’s turn of the century work and, like the Ascension Window, contains outstanding rolled drapery glass.

On the left:  The Praising Angel is another Tiffany window. 

This single figure of a golden-blond angel with the delicate rounded face of a woman looks heavenward with arms upraised in a position of praise and prayer.


On the right:  The Good Samaritan window depicts the two principal characters from one of the most well-known examples of Jesus teaching through parables.  It is also a Tiffany window.

The Jewels of the Lord Window fills a triple lancet space on the west wall of the chancel.  This window is fabricated of brilliantly colored, mouth blown antique glass, mainly red and cobalt blue. It was installed in December 1959by the Wippell Mowbray Studios. 

The Passion Window

This window is highlighted by pressed jewels, and is the finest of the mid-nineteenth century windows in the church.  The design of the window appears to have been truncated.  The patterns and type of glass identify the window with the American Craftsman Movement of the mid to late nineteenth century.