Bishop Theodore Dehon visited on May 13, 1813 and held services at the State House.

The wooden church on the southeastern corner of Sumter and Gervais Streets had a cruciform shape.

[5] The Gothic Revival church was designed by Edward Brickell White and calls to mind the medieval York Minster.

[5][7][8] The baptismal font donated by John S. Preston was sculpted by Hiram Powers.

In 1861 and 1862, which were the early years of the Confederacy, the transepts and an apsidal chancel were constructed under the direction of Edward Brickell White.

[5] Local tradition holds that laymen took down the church's Episcopal signs and put paper-mâché crosses on the roof when the Union Army entered Columbia on February 17, 1865.

[7][9] A photograph taken around 1862 shows a large cross at the peak of the gable on the front of the church.

[10] In June 1865, the commander of the Columbia garrison of the Union Army ordered Rev.

Trinity Church became part of the new Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina.

[3] The churchyard is the burial site for many noted South Carolinians: American Revolutionary War generals Wade Hampton I and Peter Horry and Private Robert Stark; Wade Hampton II, who was a veteran of the War of 1812 and noted plantation owner; John Gabriel Guignard, who was surveyor of Columbia; Dr. Thomas Cooper, who was president of South Carolina College; Confederate generals States Rights Gist, Wade Hampton III, and John S. Preston; the poet Henry Timrod; Senator Preston; six South Carolina governors: Richard Irvine Manning I, John Lawrence Manning, Hugh Smith Thompson, Richard Irvine Manning III, and James F. Byrnes; U.S. Attorney Terrell L. Glenn Sr.; and eight bishops, including Ellison Capers.