A Glimpse Into Trinity's History
Established December 2, 1830

Two Episcopal church buildings have graced the corner of Chapel and Genesee streets in Fayetteville, NY.  The first was a modest white clapboard New England-style building with tall windows for light, a tower bell to call worshipers, benches for seats, and a stove for heat.

The first settlers came to Manlius town in 1792.  Preachers and teachers soon followed, as churches and schools were the priorities for a civilized life on the frontier. By 1798, as Episcopalians began gathering to worship in homes, the missionaries settled down from their earlier years of ranging far and wide on horseback.

This parish, the second Episcopal parish in Manlius town, first met on December 2, 1830, and they worshipped in the Presbyterian church until their white clapboard church building was ready for use in 1831.The earliest arrivals settled near what is now Manlius village. Fayetteville came later and was called Manlius Four Corners until a post office was established here in 1818. The name of “Fayetteville” honors the Marquis de Lafayette. In its very earliest years, Fayetteville was known as the village with four taverns and no churches. That would change as five steeples would soon pierce the sky.

The first service in the stately new Gothic church building was held July 30, 1871. The new church could not be consecrated until it was debt free, but a national financial crisis led to a manufacturing slowdown and a resultant shortage of money.

In 1871, the white clapboard church building was sold to Collin, Wells and Tremain, furniture manufacturers and became Mr. E. Applegate’s bedstead factory. On June 5, 1873, a fire of unknown origin destroyed that building and the rest of the businesses on the property. Some people believed that the fire was an act of Divine retribution for the deconsecration of a church building. Maybe. Maybe not.

After $14,000 had been raised to pay the costs of construction, the church was consecrated by the Rt. Rev. Frederick Dan Huntington on June 16, 1875. Our Steer and Turner organ was added in October 1875, and in November 1875, our debts paid, we became self-supporting, no longer dependent on a diocesan missionary stipend to pay our clergy.

We continue striving to secure this legacy for the generations who will follow us…our children, our grandchildren, and well beyond.