Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church | |
Location | E. 7th St. and Church St., Wilmington, Delaware |
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Coordinates | 39°44′18.7″N75°32′26.0″W / 39.738528°N 75.540556°W |
Built | 1698 |
NRHP reference No. | 66000261 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 [1] |
Designated NHL | November 5, 1961 [2] |
Holy Trinity Church, also known as Old Swedes, is a historic church at East 7th and Church Street in Wilmington, Delaware. It was consecrated on Trinity Sunday, June 4, 1699, by a predominantly Swedish congregation formerly of the colony of New Sweden. [3] The church is among the few surviving public buildings that reflect the Swedish colonial effort. It remains open for tours and religious activities. The church was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961 and became part of First State National Historical Park in 2013.
The church appears on the obverse of the 1937 Delaware Tercentenary half dollar.
The church was built in 1698–99 in territory that had been the colony of New Sweden until 1655. The building materials were local blue granite and Swedish bricks that had been used as ship's ballast. The church is situated on the site of the Fort Christina's burial ground, which dates to 1638. The church claims to be "the nation's oldest church building still used for worship as originally built". There are reportedly over 15,000 burials in the churchyard. Lutheran church services were held in the Swedish language well into the 18th century. [4]
John Hansson Steelman provided significant donations which enabled the construction of the church, including £320 for the purchase of land for the church at Fort Christina and for the building of the church, £220 by loans and £100 by gift he received in return the promise that he and his wife would be buried within the church, which was not done, as they moved to Pennsylvania in the 1730s. [5]
In 1697, the Church of Sweden renewed its commitment to Swedish settlers in the Delaware Valley and sent three missionaries, Jonas Auren, Eric Bjork, and Andreas Rudman, to the area. [6] A total of three churches with similar architecture were built or established by Swedish communities in the area about the same time. All are generally known as "Old Swedes" and later joined the Episcopal Church. Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church in Philadelphia was founded in 1697 and the building was completed in 1700. Trinity Church in Swedesboro, New Jersey was founded in 1703, with its current building completed in 1784.
Five other Swedish churches were founded in the 18th century: St. Mary Anne's Episcopal Church in North East, Maryland; Old St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church in Douglassville, Pennsylvania; St. George's Episcopal in Churchtown, New Jersey; St. James Kingsessing in Philadelphia; and Christ Church (Old Swedes) in Upper Merion Township, Pennsylvania. [6]
Holy Trinity in Wilmington has housed an Episcopal parish since 1791 and is now part of the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware. An earlier church in New Sweden was built in Swanwyck, near New Castle about 1662, which was replaced by a combined church and fort at Crane Hook in 1667. [7] In 1958, the historic Hendrickson House was moved to the grounds of the church. The church building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961. [2] [8] Trinity Parish operates two church buildings in Wilmington, both listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the main building on North Adams, [9] and Old Swedes at East 7th and Church Streets.
Notable burials include:
New Sweden was a colony of the Swedish Empire along the lower reaches of the Delaware River between 1638 and 1655 in present-day Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in the United States. Established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a great power, New Sweden formed part of the Swedish efforts to colonize the Americas.
Fort Christina, also called Fort Altena, was the first Swedish settlement in North America and the principal settlement of the New Sweden colony. Built in 1638 and named after Christina, Queen of Sweden, it was located approximately 1 mi (1.6 km) east of the present-day downtown Wilmington, Delaware, at the confluence of the Brandywine River and the Christina River, approximately 2 mi (3 km) upstream from the mouth of the Christina on the Delaware River.
Brandywine Creek is a tributary of the Christina River in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware in the United States. The Lower Brandywine is 20.4 miles (32.8 km) long and is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River with several tributary streams. The East Branch and West Branch of the creek originate within 2 miles (3 km) of each other on the slopes of Welsh Mountain in Honey Brook Township, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of their confluence.
Thomas Francis Bayard Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. He was a Democratic U.S. Senator from Delaware in the 1920s.
Gloria Dei Church, known locally as Old Swedes', is a historic church located in the Southwark neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at 929 South Water Street, bounded by Christian Street on the north, South Christopher Columbus Boulevard on the east, and Washington Avenue on the south. It was built between 1698 and 1700, making it the oldest church in Pennsylvania and second oldest Swedish church in the United States after Holy Trinity Church in Wilmington, Delaware.
St. Paul's Chapel is a chapel building of Trinity Church, an episcopal parish, located at 209 Broadway, between Fulton Street and Vesey Street, in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1766, it is the oldest surviving church building in Manhattan, and one of the nation's finest examples of Late Georgian church architecture.
Israel Acrelius was a noted Swedish Lutheran missionary and priest.
Reorus Torkillus (1608–1643) was priest of the Church of Sweden and the first Lutheran clergyman to settle in what would become the United States.
St. David's Episcopal Church, also known as St. David's at Radnor or Old St. David's, is a parish of the Episcopal Church located at 763 South Valley Forge Road in Radnor Township, Pennsylvania. The church property contains the original church built in 1715, a chapel, church offices, school and cemetery. The property straddles the borders of Radnor Township and Newtown Township in Delaware County and the majority of the cemetery is in Easttown Township, Chester County. It was founded c. 1700 in the Welsh Tract section of the Province of Pennsylvania by Welsh settlers and has grown to be the largest congregation in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania with approximately 3,000 members. The original church and cemetery were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Elk Landing is the name of a historic home located at Elkton, Cecil County, Maryland. The house at Elk Landing was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
First State National Historical Park is a National Park Service unit which lies primarily in the state of Delaware but which extends partly into Pennsylvania in Chadds Ford. Initially created as First State National Monument by President Barack Obama under the Antiquities Act on March 25, 2013, the park was later redesignated as First State National Historical Park by Congress.
Henry Van Dyke Johns (1803–1859) was an Episcopal clergyman who served as Chaplain of the Senate.
Trinity Church, also known as Old Swedes' Church, is a historic church on the northwest corner of Church Street and King's Highway in Swedesboro in Gloucester County, New Jersey, U.S.
Trinity Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located at 1108 N. Adams Street in Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware. It was designed by architect Theophilus P. Chandler, and built in 1890. It is constructed of grayish white "Avondale" limestone laid in random coursed rock-faced ashlar blocks in the Gothic Revival style. It features pointed arch windows and doors, a high spire, the additional pinnacles on the side of the building, and buttresses. The parish house and rectory were added to the church in 1911 and the chapel was added in 1949. An adjacent brick three story rowhouse, known as Harris House, is attached to the complex by a second story walkway.
Hendrickson House is one of the oldest houses in the U.S. state of Delaware and one of the oldest surviving Swedish-American homes in the United States.
Immanuel on the Green (Episcopal) is an historic church in New Castle, Delaware, listed as a contributing property in the New Castle Historic District. The church is situated near the center of New Castle at the northeast end of the Green, or town common, making it a prominent local landmark and tourist attraction. Operating continuously since 1689, it is the oldest Anglican parish in Delaware and the oldest continuously operating Anglican/Episcopal parish in the country. The church building was constructed between 1703 and 1708 and enlarged in 1822. The interior and roof were rebuilt following a disastrous fire in 1980.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
St. Paul's Church is an Episcopal church founded in 1702 in Chester, Pennsylvania. The church is a part of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. It is located at 301 East 9th Street and is an active worship center.
John Hansson Steelman, also known as "Hance" Stillman, Stelman, Tilghman, or Tillmann (1655–1749), the eldest son of Hans Månsson and Ella Olofsdotter Stille. He was a fur trader and interpreter who traded with Shawnee, Susquehannock and Piscataway Indians in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Steelman made substantial donations to support the construction of the Holy Trinity Church Church, probably covering as much as a third of the building costs. He died in 1749 in Adams County, Pennsylvania at the age of 94.