Trinity Episcopal Church

Through the Civil War the congregation stayed open under Union occupation of Clarksville. Its rector, Samuel Ringgold, persuaded Union leaders to allow services by arguing that "decent and orderly" worship should rise above politics and war. The parish's first building, finished in 1838, was only the second permanent church in town, after a Methodist one. It was pulled down in 1873 and a stone Romanesque church replaced it. The rectory followed in 1883 and a parish house in 1916.

What the plaque says

Trinity Episcopal Church Trinity Parish Church, founded in 1832, is one of the five oldest Episcopal parishes in Tennessee. This Romanesque building was completed in 1877, at a cost of $40,000. Cave Johnson (1793-1866), U.S. Postmaster General; Gustavus A. Henry (1804-1880), Eagle Orator of Tennessee; and Horace H. Lurton (1844-1914), U.S. Supreme Court Justice, worshipped here. Trinity Episcopal Church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on April 6, 1982. Damaged during the Clarksville tornado in 1999, the church has been restored to its former elegance.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Defiance Civil War Park and Interpretive Center — 1.2 mi
  An intact earthwork fort above the Cumberland and Red Rivers in Clarksville, begun with forced Black labor and later a contraband camp and recruiting center for Black soldiers.
• Dunbar Cave State Park — 3.5 mi
  A Clarksville cave with 800-year-old Mississippian artwork, later a resort and Roy Acuff's dance stage, now a state park with seasonal guided tours.
• Cross Creeks National Wildlife Refuge — 24 mi
  An 8,862-acre refuge on the Cumberland River floodplain near Dover, made in 1962 to replace habitat Lake Barkley flooded, wintering tens of thousands of waterfowl.

More markers nearby

• Clarksville's Slave Market — steps away
• Austin Peay — steps away
• Montgomery County Courthouse — steps away
• Pioneer Newspaper — steps away