Trinity's first building at its present location, corner of Water and Prospect Streets

1843 - Rev. Henry Zell
1849 - Rev. David P. Sanford
1850 - Rev. Joshua D. Berry, Minister-in-Charge
1851 - Rev. Joseph S. Covell
1855 - Rev. Ezra Jones
1856 - Rev. Charles H. Seymour, Minister-in-Charge
1857 - Rev. James Morton
1858 - Rev. Joseph S. Covell
1863 - Rev. David P. Sanford
1868 - Rev. Benjamin Eastwood
1874 - Rev. Henry B. Enswoth
1876 - Rev. Henry Martin Sherman
1891 - Rev. Melville Knox Bailey
1895 - Rev. John Chauncey Linsley
1927 - Rev. Henry Francis Hine
1959 - Rev. David Gracey
1977 - Rev. Stephen Wade
1985 - Rev. Edward Adkins, Interim
1986 - Rev. Joseph M. Clark
1991 - Rev. Kenneth Coleman, Interim
1992 - Rev. Ellen L. Tillotson

Trinity Parish in Wolcottville (later Torrington) began as a mission of Christ Church, Harwinton. The Rev. Henry Zell, Rector of Christ Church, mentioned in his Convention Journal of 1843 that he had been preaching once a month in Wolcottville for a year. Services were held in the Academy Building on South Main Street opposite Coe Park. In February 1843, Trinity Parish was organized, and Rev. Zell became the first Rector of the new Parish. With only about $2,000 raised from supporters, the lot on the corner of Water and Prospect Streets was purchased, and the new church was consecrated in December of 1844 with only a small debt on the property.

Wolcottville grew in industries which brought workers to the area, many from England who joined Trinity Parish, but they were poor, and the parish struggled to keep up its buildings and congregation. But in the last quarter of the century, the city and the church flourished, with several additions to the structure being made and a rectory being built and later rebuilt. Movement in the parish was growing for a new church building, and the land around the original building was bought by parishioners and given to Trinity.

The cornerstone of the current church building was laid on October 3, 1897. The parish had voted to accept the plans submitted by the architects Henry M. Congdon & Son of New York. Mr. Congdon worked primarily as an ecclesiastical architect, having been educated at Columbia College and apprenticed to John Priest, a church architect from Newburgh, NY. In 1897, Henry Congdon's son Herbert was just graduating from Columbia's School of Architecture and would go on to specialize in Episcopal churchs all along the Eastern seaboard. Together, they drew up a plan that included not only the outside of the building, but also its beautiful interior, the altar and reredos, and a plan for the subjects of its stained glass windows.

The entire debt for the magnificent building was paid in less than six years, and on June 28, 1903, the building was consecrated. The thirty-voice choir was accompanied by a ten-piece orchestra, and the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah was sung as the Offertory.

The old wooden church served as a Parish Hall for nine years after the building of the new church, but in 1906, construction was begun on a new parish hall, which was part of Henry Congdon's original plan. It was opened in January 1909, and in September of 1911, the Parish Hall was converted for use as a hospital during an epidemic of typhoid fever! The last building to be completed according to the architect's plans was a rectory, completed in the early 1920's and replacing an older frame house.

The real history of any parish is not the story of its bricks and mortar but of its people, and there have been too many since 1843 to name. The beautiful decorations and windows, altars and pulpit, are all gifts to the church from parishioners. The names on the many memorials are names linked to the history of Torrington: Coe, Workman, Fuessenich and many others. Below is a list of the Rectors of Trinity Episcopal Church since its founding:

The architects of the church, Henry M. Congdon and his son Herbert, drew up a plan for the subjects of the stained glass windows before any of them were ever placed. The scheme for the twenty windows was to illustrate the life of Christ, starting with the window behind the pulpit (and now partially obscured by organ pipes) and finishing with Gethsemane, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and Ascension flanking the main altar. Because the windows were donated over a period of over sixty years, not all of the windows follow the iconographic plan suggested by the Congdons.

The lower half shows a single lily (fleur-de-lys) which is the coat of arms for the borough of Torrington, Devon, England. (St. Michael's church in Great Torrington has the emblem in a stained-glass window, shown at the right.)