Our Church History

Dr. David Harlan was a Medical Director of the Navy and a Churchville resident. In 1866 he and the Rev. Edward A. Colburn, rector of Deer Creek Parish, founded Churchville Parish. That year, Dr. Harlan donated the land and construction of the first church was begun promptly. Its architect was William H. Reasin, an Aberdeen native whose practice was based in Baltimore. The Diocese of Maryland received Churchville Parish at the 1867 convention. Dr. Harlan continued to provide for the parish by supplying funds for a rectory, barn, outbuildings, and a parish day and boarding school.

The first church was destroyed in 1877 by an early morning fire a few days before Christmas. Dr. Harlan promptly donated the present structure. It was designed by George Archer and completed in time for a Sunday service on December 22, 1878.

George Archer was born near Churchville and educated at Princeton. His successful practice was based in Baltimore. Holy Trinity Church is an original interpretation of 13th century English Gothic architecture built of stone quarried near Churchville. The trim is Port Deposit granite and the roof is slate quarried in Cardiff, Maryland, Harford County. The windows were built by H. T. Gernhardt of Baltimore. Most of the furnishings are original to the building. The three sanctuary chairs and the Harlan Room altar are original to the first church. The Historical Society of Harford County currently houses the collection of Katharine Baxter Harlan. Her collection includes letters and records about founding of the parish, documents detailing the construction and furnishing of all the early buildings and records of early parish operations.

The Parish Hall was built in 1961 and contained a small kitchen and basement Sunday school rooms. Parishioners built an addition between 1984-85, largely by their own labor. This building contains the present kitchen, offices, choir room, Harlan Room, and Church School classrooms in the new basement.

In 1999 the Parish launched a major 5-year capital improvement program for the restoration of the historic church and improvements to the parish house and the property. The restoration was completed in the summer of 2003. In 2004 the parish purchased a 1980 Möller pipe organ and had it reconditioned and reconfigured in a new case to fit the available space. The church was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in December 2002.