Trinity Episcopal Church
Abbeville's Gothic Revival Church
Trinity Episcopal Church is the oldest standing church in Abbeville. With its classic Gothic architecture and 125-foot steeple, it dominates the Abbeville skyline. Built by a congregation made prosperous by the economy of cotton in the antebellum period, it was constructed in 1859-60 as clouds gathered for a war that would radically change their way of life forever.
Marshall Memorial
Memorial to Colonel and Mrs. J. Foster Marshall. Colonel Marshall is one of three lost colonels of the Confederacy buried at Trinity but the only one buried in the churchyard.
Trinity's Architectural Heritage
The congregation engaged Columbia architect George E. Walker to design a new church to replace its 1843 wooden structure. Mr. Walker found his inspiration in the Gothic cathedrals of France. Designed to hold 400 persons, the church was consecrated on November 4, 1860 and still retains many of its original elements. The organ built by John Baker of Charleston dates back to 1860. The bell in the tower is also original and it remarkable because it survived Confederate requests to be melted down into cannon balls. One can still see the original artistic graining on the pews. The boxwood gardens were planed in 1859-1860 by Rev. Benjamin Johnson from the nursery at Pomaria, South Carolina.
Trinity Church Today
While a major restoration took place in the mid-1970s, the congregation is committed to the church's care and maintenance as well as the preservation of trinity as a house of worship.
Marker is at the intersection of North Church Street and Trinity Street, on the left when traveling north on North Church Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
