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Overview

The architect Henry Fletcher Starbuck, then located in Chicago, iL, designed this second home of the Trinity Parish Episcopalian congregation. It lasted only a short time, less than ten years, before it burned.

Building History

The organization of the Trinity Parish congregation dated back to 1865. For five years the parish met at rented sites, before erecting their own home in 1871, a wooden Gothic Revival edifice. This first church, located at 3rd and Jefferson, on the northwest corner, burned in the Great Fire of 1889.

Architect Henry Fletcher Starbuck (1850-1935) designed the second building at a new location, 609 8th Avenue. Starbuck led a peripatetic life. He was born in Nantucket, MA, but practiced in Boston, MA, Saint Johns, NB, Chicago, IL, Milwaukee, WI, and other cities before migrating to CA in 1894, first in San Diego, and then, in 1896, Los Angeles. He developed a reputation as a designer of church architecture, and one of his earliest churches on the West Coast was the Trinity Parish Church #2. Charles A. Alexander was the Superintendent of Construction in 1891.

This church held its first service on 06/05/1892.

Building Notes

The Episcopal minister and University of Washington Oriental Languages Professor, Herbert Henry Gowen (1864-1960), officiated services at this important congregational church in 1905. Gowen was the father of the longtime University of Washington Professor of Architecture, Lancelot E. Gowen (1894-1958).

Demolition

Trinity Parish Church #2 burned on 01/20/1902. It lasted only ten years before being consumed by fire. A third church was rebuilt on the same foundations. English-born architect John Graham, Sr., (1873-1955) designed the third structure for the congregation.

PCAD id: 5332