*** Source: Trinity Church, San Jose, California: Advent, 1860, to Easter, 1903. San Jose, Calif.: Trinity Parish Guild, 1903. Notice: This data is donated to the Public Domain by TAG, 2004, and may be copied freely by anyone to anywhere. *** ---page 7--- History. To the younger generations that belong to Trinity Parish, it seems hardly possible that there ever could have been a time when the center of the parish life was not the little ivy-covered church on St. John Street. But venerable as this building seems, it is only the last of a series which have served as the home of the parish. On North Market Street there is, what is now an engine house, at one time the City Hall of San Jose. In one of the lower rooms of this building, the life of the parish began. There are Communicants of Trinty Church to-day who were present at the first service held in this room, prior to the organization of the parish, forty-two years ago. The officiating priest was the Rev. Sylvester S. Etheridge, a young clergyman who had come to this western coast in search of health, and with a determina- tion to use what strength he had, in founding a parish of the Church wherever need might be. There were a number of religious denominations al- ready well established in San Jose, and the Roman Catholic Church had for years been doing missionary work. Services of the Protestant Episcopal Church had been held from time to time in the Presbyterian Church on North Second street by the Bishop of the Diocese, the Rt. Rev. William Ingraham Kip; but they were few and far between, as there were no train accommodations from San Francisco to San Jose, passage being made by state coach. Mr. Etheridge found but nine Communicants of the Church in the city and vicinity. He gave, however, notice of a service to be held on the first Sunday in Advent, 1860, in the lower court room of the old City Hall. *** end ***