{"nrhp_refnum":"73002219","name":"Trinity Episcopal Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"High and Court Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Portsmouth (Independent City)","county":"Portsmouth","state":"VA","lat":36.834821324000075,"lon":-76.30118297599995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-05-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Trinity Episcopal Church is a stuccoed brick Anglican/Episcopal church at the southwest corner of High and Court Streets in Portsmouth, Virginia. The present building was erected in 1828-1830 on the site of a colonial church built around 1762.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the church as a simple but elegant building at the city's main crossroads that symbolizes Portsmouth's long ties to the past. It replaced the first Established Church in the area and has a long record of parish history, including use as a Civil War hospital and the story of a Confederate memorial window. Its churchyard was the town's only burial ground for years and holds stones dating from 1763.","narrative":"Trinity Episcopal Church sits at the southwest corner of High and Court Streets in Portsmouth, Virginia, the city's main crossroads. The current stuccoed building went up between 1828 and 1830 on the site of a brick church from about 1762, the first Established Church in the area. Its builders reused materials salvaged from old Fort Nelson after the original fabric proved too decayed to save. The church has changed often: an annex and tower in 1893, a parish house in 1954, and a remodeling in 1961 that uncovered the original Flemish-bond walls beneath the floor. Its history includes a gap in services from 1809 to 1821, use as a Civil War hospital, and a memorial window to Portsmouth's Confederate dead that was removed under Navy pressure in 1868 and restored in 1954. The churchyard, once the town's only burial ground, holds stones dating to 1763.","period_of_significance":"1828-1830","architect_builder":"Later work by W. P. Wentworth of Boston (1893 enlargement), Cassell & Cassell of Baltimore (1887 chapel), Bradford Tazewell of Williams and Tazewell (1961 remodeling); original architect not stated","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied, in good condition, altered; in religious use.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.364532-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/0/6826/41682600/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/73002219.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73002219/707b6f0572-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73002219/707b6f0572-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portsmouth,_Virginia_(8596812341).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portsmouth,_Virginia_(8596812341).jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"03001485","name":"Downtown Portsmouth Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/downtown-portsmouth-historic-district-03001485/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41682600","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Episcopal_Church_(Portsmouth,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16901990"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/portsmouth/trinity-episcopal-church-73002219/"}