In the early years of worship in Port Chalmers, a predominantly Scots Presbyterian settlement, Anglicans were taken under the wing of the larger congregations. For twenty years, they shared a place of worship with the Presbyterians. The first vicar for the Episcopal church, Reverend J A Fenton, arrived from England in 1852, and became the first Anglican vicar resident in Otago. He held services at Port Chalmers every six months. By 1870, the Port Chalmers Presbyterians, Wesleyans and Congregationalists had their own churches and the Anglicans expressed the desire for their own place of worship. In August 1870, R.H. Guise, for the Anglican community, advertised in the Otago Daily Times for ‘an Eligible SITE, in the Town of Port Chalmers on which to erect a Church of England.’ The Anglican Church was further established when Samuel Nevill was consecrated Bishop of Dunedin in 1871, marking the beginning of ‘a golden age of new parishes and new churches.’ Port Chalmers lead the way with plans for their new church. The congregation made a public appeal, claiming that Port Chalmers could be considered the principal port of the colony, with a large transient population to minister to, and that their small, poor population needed financial assistance. The Port Chalmers Anglican congregation formed a building committee, and the women organised fund raising. The committee advertised in the Otago Daily Times for a suitable building site, and for £150, they purchased a half-acre section on the corner of Grey and Scotia streets – a ‘commanding site’ overlooking the town and the port. After seeking plans and specifications from a number of different architects for a church large enough to seat three hundred worshippers, the committee selected the design of R.A. Lawson. The design was for a church in Early English Gothic style. Bishop Nevill laid the foundation stone on 7 June 1871, with full Masonic ceremony. The builder was Mr Borlase. Soon after, the first vicar, Reverend T L Stanley was ordained. Building was slow, and the church did not open until 1874. On the building’s opening the Otago Witness, reported that the ‘early Gothic’ style building was cruciform in plan. Its dimensions were 76 feet [23.16 metres] in length, 30 feet [9.14 metres] wide, with 16 foot [4.87 metre] high walls, and a ridge height of 36 feet [10.97 metres]. The chancel was 23 feet long by 30 feet wide [7.02 by 9.14 metres], expanding into the vestry on one side, and the organ chamber on the other. The vestry was 18 feet by 13 feet [5.48 by 3.96 metres], while the organ chamber was 11 feet by 15 feet [3.35 by 4.57 metres]. The church had 23 windows, plus four trefoil and cinquefoil windows in the gables. The cinquefoil windows had crosses of Oamaru stone above them. Twenty buttresses supported the body of the church, while the double trusses resting on side corbels both supported and ornamented the roof. The ‘very beautiful’, ‘very substantial and somewhat imposing structure’ was a ‘credit to the Port.’ The congregation then set about building a Sunday school hall, a vicarage, and a bell tower. The congregation struggled to repay the debts incurred by these building projects, and indeed was forced by the mortgagee to sell the first vicarage. Adding to the financial burden, the church itself was not without problems. The roof leaked, causing ongoing maintenance expenses. In 1906, Reverend Tewsley provided funds to re-roof the church and restore the chancel, among other improvements. Marseilles tiles replaced the original shingles. The Holy Trinity Church, now debt free, was consecrated in 1907. In 1916, the organ was installed. It remains in place and is, according to John Stiller of the Historic Organ Group, ‘an interesting example of an early twentieth century instrument featuring an economic tonal design capable of producing great diversity from a small number of stops.’ From early days, Holy Trinity has been a place of worship and commemoration. Several families have donated stained glass windows. Soon after the church opened, John Elmer donated a stained glass window to Holy Trinity in memory of his mother. The Melbourne-made window was installed in 1875 at the east end of the church. It showed a central figure of the Crucifixion surmounted by the Agnus Dei, with the lower staining of a pelican feeding its young. In 1946, the window was moved to the left side of the chancel. Four other memorial stained glass windows were donated to Holy Trinity: two on either side of the main window behind the altar, in memory of Albert Newman Shelton who died in 1935, donated by his widow; the centre light behind the altar donated by Mr Leftwich, designed to be in keeping with the Shelton windows, dedicated in 1946; and another window dedicated to Charles Edwin who died in 1925. In later years, there were some changes to the interior layout of the church. The choir stalls were removed when choir work declined. Two rows of pews with a centre aisle replaced three rows of pews. A free-standing altar was installed and the communion rails were removed to the chancel steps. In 2014, the Holy Trinity Church remains the place of worship for Anglicans in Port Chalmers and the surrounding North Harbour communities.