The American Institute of Architects has voted Trinity Church one of the ten most significant buildings in the United States more or less continuously since the survey began. Completed in 1877 to H. H. Richardson's design, it launched the architectural style that bears his name — Richardsonian Romanesque — and inspired three generations of American civic buildings.
The interior is the real surprise. John La Farge's polychrome stencilling covers nearly every surface in deep red, gold, and green, with stained-glass windows by La Farge himself, Edward Burne-Jones, and William Morris. The acoustic is good, and a popular Friday lunchtime organ recital fills the church for half an hour. Self-guided tours run between services; guided tours go through the bell tower.
Trinity sits on the south side of Copley Square, framed by the Boston Public Library across the green and reflected in the glass of the John Hancock Tower behind it — one of the great urban set-pieces in American architecture.