Trinity Church, Lime Rock, Salisbury, America, the World In New History Book
Geoff Brown has published a history of the elegant 19th-century stone church in Lime Rock, Conn., that places the church and our region in the larger context of world history. 
Photo by Janet Manko

Trinity Church, Lime Rock, Salisbury, America, the World In New History Book

Some books are better when you dip into them, and don’t try to read them end to end. Cookbooks are an obvious example. Marcel Proust’s epic multi-volume masterpiece is another, in my opinion.

For journalists, the “Associated Press Stylebook” works that way.

A new, region-specific example is historian Geoff Brown’s 650-page history of Trinity Episcopal Church in Lime Rock, Conn.

Lime Rock is one of the five villages that make up the town of Salisbury.

In modern times, it might be best known as the location for a small but active race track.

Historically, it was a center of the iron industry that helped build the Northwest Corner of Connecticut. The most important company involved in that industry was called Barnum & Richardson.

Brown explains in his introduction to the book that Trinity Church is the last part of Barnum & Richardson  that is still fulfilling its original function.

It’s a beautiful stone church, designed by Henry Martyn Congdon in the 1870s — and it takes 73 pages of history before you arrive at the birth of this lovely new (now old) church, which is on Route 112 just across from the race track.

The book begins roughly “475,000,000 years before the present (YBP)” with the Taconic Orogeny and then proceeds to “2,000,000 YBP” and the Pleistocene Epoch (the Great Ice Age).

Somehow Brown, who has an easy, conversational writing style, makes those early bits of planetary history interesting and relevant: It was that prehistoric geologic activity that helped create the physical landscape of the Northwest Corner — and that put in place the elements that made this part of the world a center of iron production in the 18th and 19th centuries. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this part of the world is what it is today because of iron ore.

Brown generally follows the funnel style of writing, in which he begins with the larger context for an event. He does it like a skillful math teacher, who starts you off counting straws into bundles of 10 and pretty soon has you adding, subtracting and doing fractions.

This tale moves inexorably toward the 21st century, but there are stops along the way to explain everything from the Irish potato famine to the annual mud season in this part of the world (March and April!) to the war in Vietnam.

All of it has an impact on Trinity Church and on Salisbury and the surrounding towns. Brown only writes a couple sentences on all these things but he skillfully pulls it all together.

Normally, a history of a small church in a small town would only be of interest to parishioners of that church; or to dedicated historians.

But Brown has made it a fascinating history of the world at large, and of Salisbury’s place in the world. An experienced historian, Brown is founder of the Salisbury-based Between the Lakes Group, which publishes history books and articles about states and towns all along the Eastern Seaboard. Find out more about those books, choose from a deep well of history articles and enjoy some cool historic postcards at www.betweenthelakes.com.

Like “Trinity Lime Rock in Context: A History,” the website is a wonderful place to dip a toe in from time to time. Every time you visit, you’ll be glad you did.

Short visits to the book are easy to manage, because of the way Brown has organized the text into short snippets, separated by date and topic.

Order “Trinity Lime Rock in Context: A History” on Amazon; the paperback edition is $29.95.

Information on services at Trinity Lime Rock can be found online at www.trinitylimerock.org.

Latest News

Robert G. Grandell

CANAAN — Robert G. Grandell, 81, of Canaan, passed away peacefully on Jan. 29, 2025.

Robert was born in Waterbury, on Aug. 29, 1943, the son of Isabella (Brickett) and Art Perkins. He married Janet (Van Deusen) on June 27, 1964.

Keep ReadingShow less
Welcome Subscription Offer!

Special Subscription Offer

Thank you for inquiring about the Welcome Offer, which expired on January 30. Please be on the lookout for new subscriber offers in the future. If you would like to subscribe now, please click the button below or call (860) 435-9873.

Thank you!

Keep ReadingShow less
Frozen fun in Lakeville

Hot-tub style approach with a sledge-hammer assist at the lake.

Alec Linden

While the chill of recent weeks has driven many Northwest Corner residents inside and their energy bills up, others have taken advantage of the extended cold by practicing some of our region’s most treasured — and increasingly rare — pastimes: ice sports.

I am one of those who goes out rather than in when the mercury drops: a one-time Peewee and Bantam league hockey player turned pond hockey enthusiast turned general ice lover. In the winter, my 12 year-old hockey skates never leave my trunk, on the chance I’ll pass some gleaming stretch of black ice on a roadside pond.

Keep ReadingShow less
Garet&Co returns to Norfolk

Emma Brockett, Josalyn Cipkas and Tiffany Oltjenbruns in rehearsal for “From All Angles.”

Elias Olsen

Garet Wierdsma and her northern Connecticut-based dance company, Garet&Co, will return to Norfolk for their third annual appearance with Dance Workshops on the next three Sundays, followed by two performances of “From All Angles” in Battelle Chapel on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 23, at 4 p.m.

In “From All Angles,” audience members will witness Garet&Co translate three of the works presented at their fall show, “Can’t Keep Friends,” danced in the round, where viewers can witness each piece from a new angle.

Keep ReadingShow less