Trinity Church has been listed on the U.S. National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places since 2004. Middlesex County and Woodbridge Township have also recognized the historical status of the church’s buildings and grounds through gifts of commemorative markers.
Several modifications to the church building have been made since its consecration in May 1861. The exterior roof, masonry and woodwork were rehabilitated and the structure was stabilized in 2010 with assistance from the New Jersey Historic Trust. Two stained-glass windows from the 1880s were refurbished in 2011.
Yet the building retains the same basic appearance as it did when first constructed, as the picture below will attest.
Stained-glass windows in the church building commemorate historical figures of Trinity and the Episcopal Church, tell the story of Jesus Christ and depict scenes from the Bible. To take a virtual tour, click here.
Along with the church building, three other portions of the property are listed in the National Register: the Churchyard, the Rectory and St. Martha’s House.
The Churchyard has been a burial ground since 1714, and the oldest tombstone is dated 1750. The location is the final resting place for several members of the Dunham family, descended from Jonathan Dunham, one of Woodbridge’s earliest settlers.
The Dunhams are just one of the early Woodbridge families that are represented in the Churchyard. Members of the Barron, Bunn, Jaques and Pike families are also buried there. Some other significant graves belong to Asher Dunham, a great-grandson of Jonathan Dunham who fought in the Revolutionary War, and veterans of later armed conflicts. For a listing of graves from 1917, click here.
Jonathan Dunham put up the house that became the Rectory around 1717, according to research done for Trinity’s nomination to the national register. Dunham also built New Jersey’s first grist mill nearby. He is an eighth-great-grandfather of former President Barack Obama, whose mother’s maiden name was Stanley Ann Dunham.
The residence was enlarged and modernized after being bought in 1872 by George C. Hance, a wealthy parishioner. Hance turned over the deed to Trinity in 1873, when it became the Rector’s home. For more about Jonathan Dunham, his house and the Rectory, please visit the home’s website.
St. Martha’s House, formerly the Parish House and Sexton’s Residence, was built in 1874. The Gothic Revival home provides meeting space for community groups and houses the Sexton, who maintains the church’s buildings and property.
Trinity’s property also includes the current Parish House, which was built in 1956. The hall hosts fellowship hours, organization meetings and community events.
The Parish House is connected to the church building via the Cloister, built in 1970. The Cloister features stained glass on the windows.
The Churchyard features a Labyrinth, an ancient vehicle for prayer and meditation, to commemorate the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Two people with family ties to the congregation, Colleen Ann Meehan Barkow and Edward T. Strauss, died when the World Trade Center towers collapsed.
Part of a steel beam from the Trade Center is in the middle of the Labyrinth. Members of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew and other congregants installed the Labyrinth in 2003, and it was dedicated on June 19, 2004.
