It largely retains its original early Gothic exterior, using the indigenous New Haven trap rock, in this form, a red/brown/orange stone that changes color with light and moisture for its external walls.

Its mostly newer Gothicizing interior has burgundy walls and deep-sea green ceilings, oak pews with closing doors leading into the aisle, and gilt arches, groining, and organ pipes.

Most unusual is the east side outfacing window "Trinity's History and Vision," commissioned for the 250th anniversary of the first church and designed by glass artist Val Sigsted; it is back-lit at night and it shines out on the dark New Haven green for those passing by or waiting for the bus.

The stone reredos in the chancel was dedicated in 1912, with statues carved by Lee Lawrie in both late Gothic Revival and very early Art Deco styles.

Trinity Parish also sponsors the Chapel on the Green, a highly-accessible "outdoor church" that offers services and also lunch for the homeless every Sunday afternoon of the year regardless of weather.

A cultural center, Trinity on the Green is often a venue for concerts, dramatic performances, and events by Yale University, Hopkins School, and the International Festival of Arts and Ideas.

Johnson on assuming his mission there in 1723 planned on using New Haven as a base to convert Yale students to the Episcopacy so they in turn could take orders and fill the newly founded parishes of his missionary territory in Connecticut.

Henry Caner Jr. later went on to study with Johnson, take orders, and lead Anglican churches in Fairfield, Connecticut, and King's Chapel, Boston.

Samuel Johnson preached in New Haven: ten parishioners came up after the service and each subscribed £100 towards building a Church, though opposition by the town prevented its construction at that time, and for the next two decades.

[21] Underterred by repeated failures, Johnson appointed two wardens around 1749, and collected money and timber to build a physical church for the parish.

Beleaguered by Puritans (who greatly outnumbered the Anglicans, in spite of their being members of the "official", established religion of the Crown Colony of Connecticut), to proclaim its status in the larger British Empire, whose the British monarch has the constitutional title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England, a gold crown was placed atop the steeple.

[citation needed] In 1785, Trinity brought a pipe organ from the London builder Henry Holland, another item not then found in Puritan churches.

In the wooden building, it was flanked by two Gothic arch-shaped tablets listing the Ten Commandments, which are presently displayed in Trinity's vestibule.

Those who wanted to place a bid could "see the Plan or draft" kept in the New Haven offices of William McCracken, a member of the building Committee, who would only accept proposals "in writing and under sealed covers."

The distinctive numbered box pews with latchable doors on the pulpit-facing slips in the nave (though not the galleries) were already archaic in 1816, but reflect this early method of raising income.

Town notes that, "The Gothic style of architecture has been chosen and adhered to in the erection of this Church, as being in some respects more appropriate, and better suited to the solemn purposes of religious worship.

According to Ithiel Town's description, the stone blocks were "layered with their natural faces out, and so selected and fitted as to form small but irregular joints, which are pointed.

"[32] Diabase is a dark and very strong volcanic rock whose iron content weathers to a rusty orange-brown when exposed to the air, giving Trinity Church its distinctive reddish appearance with soft tints of orange and brown.

While Ithiel Town may not have been on site at any time during St. Paul's construction, it appears he authorized the use of his original design for Trinity, given the accuracy of the replication.

In 1884, at the liturgical east end of the church, a chancel was added, raised up five steps from the level of the nave, accommodating Oxford Movement sacramental practices associated with Medieval Catholic traditions.

These changes, completed during the heart of the Gothic Revival period, were punctuated in December 1886 by a chime of ten bells installed in the entry tower.

Visually strong gilt plaster groins rising from the limestone column surrounds formed the new nave ceiling, providing an effect reflective of a High Gothic cathedral.

[38] On March 24, 1912, the Indiana limestone reredos in the chancel with its statues of Jesus, Mary, the Prophets and The Four Evangelists topped off by winged angels was dedicated by the Rt.

The lower 11 statues in niche's are carved in the High Gothic style: they represent Christ in the center, flanked by Mary and Elizabeth, while the prophets Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah and Ezekiel stand in pairs on the Gospel side, and the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John stand in pairs on the Epistle side.

It was designed by the Meriden, Connecticut architect Charles Scranton Palmer and built at a cost of $360,000; "it incorporated a lavish mixture of Tudor and Ivy League Gothic that allowed it to blend comfortably with its Yale neighbors.

[39] In 1961-1962 to provide fire exits and to improve the flow of communion takers, a two-story wing on both sides of the chancel was constructed using Eli Whitney's trap rock recovered from an old house on Wall Street belonging originally to the Daggett family that was being torn down to make room for a parking lot.

No electronic sound effects have been added, and even the builder's electro-pneumatic action technology remains intact, including its original "vertical selector" console and switching system, thereby preserving an important link with the history of American organ-building of that period.

[44][45] Trinity, having been built on the New Haven Green, has always been limited in its possibilities for expansion by a legal restriction to within "two ox carts" from the outside wall of the church – about 3.8 meters or 12.4 feet.

The Revolution in America not only separated Americans from the government and monarchy of Great Britain, it also severed ties with the Church of England.

The seventh minister, the New Haven-born Ebenezer Punderson, began as a SPG missionary priest-in-charge, but on December 20, 1778 he became and independent Rector when the American Anglican churches could no longer be supported from England.