Copley Square and Trinity Church

Why is it significant?

You have entered Copley Square, the supreme cultural and civic forum of Boston, named in honor of celebrated colonial portrait painter John Singleton Copley. Dominating the eastern side of the square rises Trinity Church, completed in 1877 under the legendary rector Phillips Brooks.

Key Facts

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You have entered Copley Square, the supreme cultural and civic forum of Boston, named in honor of celebrated colonial portrait painter John Singleton Copley. Dominating the eastern side of the square rises Trinity Church, completed in 1877 under the legendary rector Phillips Brooks. Designed by visionary Louisiana-born architect Henry Hobson Richardson, this monumental masterpiece launched the Richardsonian Romanesque style, an architectural movement that revolutionized American building.

Built upon a foundation of over four thousand five hundred wooden pilings driven into thirty feet of water-saturated mud, Trinity Church weighs an astounding ninety million pounds. To prevent the wooden pilings from rotting, water levels beneath the church are monitored constantly through observation wells in the basement, ensuring the timbers remain permanently submerged.

The church's exterior is an extraordinary symphony of rough-faced golden Dedham granite, red Longmeadow brownstone, and a colossal central square tower inspired by the Cathedral of Salamanca in Spain. Step into the breathtaking interior to view the lavish decorative murals and stained-glass masterpieces designed by American artist John La Farge, working in collaboration with British Pre-Raphaelite master William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. Standing directly adjacent to the church is the sleek sixty-story John Hancock Tower, designed by Henry N. Cobb of I.M. Pei and Partners and completed in 1976. The tower's reflective glass facade mirrors the stone towers of Trinity Church like a colossal vertical mirror, creating one of the most famous architectural dialogues in the world.

Gazing across Copley Square from the fountain steps, the visual dialogue between Richardson's heavy Romanesque stone and Cobb's mirror-like glass skyscraper takes your breath away. This magnificent square represents the golden apex of American architectural achievement. The warm golden tones of the granite towers and the intricate stone carvings around the entrance portals showcase the supreme artistry of nineteenth-century American ecclesiastical craft.

Walk west across the square to the monumental entrance of the Boston Public Library.