St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church is a historic Episcopal church in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. It was built in 1847. Following years of controversy, the parish was closed in 1957, and the building stood mostly empty for the next 12 years. The present name of the parish reflects the fact that St. Ann's, the oldest Episcopal parish in Brooklyn, moved into the then empty Holy Trinity building in 1969. The church possesses some of the earliest figural stained-glass windows made in the United States, crafted by William Jay Bolton. The church was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
A rectory was constructed immediately west of the church between 1895 and 1897. The ground floor of this building now serves as the parish hall.
The windows of St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church were created by William Jay Bolton with the assistance of his brother, John Bolton, between 1845 and 1848. Though preceded by a figural window Bolton made for Christ Church Priory in Pelham, NY, these windows are the first complete canon, or set, of figural stained glass windows made in North America. The Bolton windows consist of six distinct sets totaling 55 glass installations, of which 54 remain.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.