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[Narrator] High above downtown Davenport on West 12th Street, a place of worship ascends, a monument to faith shaped by the dedication of generations.

[John Gardiner] It's the devotion of people who were members of this church. They've made it what it is.

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[Narrator] Trinity Episcopal Cathedral embodies a vibrant, living history. Constructed shortly after the Civil War, this eastern Iowa landmark is distinguished as one of the earliest cathedrals in the Episcopal Church in the United States. Rising in Gothic Revival splendor, the cathedral's foundation is grounded in Iowa limestone and then crowned with limestone from Indiana.

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[Gardiner] The architect for this building was Edward Tuckerman Potter, and he was selected by Henry Washington Lee, who was the first Bishop of Iowa. Lee had been a parish priest in Rochester, New York, and was assigned by the church to come to Iowa and be its first bishop. He was a tremendously dynamic person and he had been very popular in Rochester, and they provided a significant amount of the dollars to build the church.

[Narrator] Bishop Lee purchased the former grounds of Iowa College, an institution that had since moved and became Grinnell College. A generous donation from a Chicago church member soon followed, and Bishop Lee put in motion his vision of a cathedral for the Iowa diocese.

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[Narrator] As you enter the nave of Trinity Cathedral, you are presented with a sea of Iowa butternut pews. Towering beams rise around you, guiding your gaze upward to the heavens, reflecting the inspiration behind its basilica style design.

[Gardiner] If you look upward, it looks like the bottom of a ship. And the pews are filled with people who are the oarsmen who move the church forward. And the bishop is the captain and he's up front and providing direction to the people who are moving the church forward.

[Narrator] Symbolism stretches throughout the cathedral, touching every space and embedding the mysteries of the Anglican faith in every chamber and hall. One of the most striking features is the set of nine arched lancet windows gracefully surrounding the altar.

[Gardiner] The first thing you look at, of course, is the altar and the windows at the altar in the sanctuary. On a sunny day, when the altar faced east – churches generally are positioned from west to east -- when that sun streams through those stained-glass windows, the impact is really very, very powerful.

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[Narrator] Hard surfaces, soaring ceilings and a spacious choir loft channel music to every corner of the cathedral. Surging through the nave is the beautiful sound of Trinity's Wolff Tracker Organ, a majestic instrument installed in 1979, whose melodies flow through nearly 3,000 pipes.

[Gardiner] It's a glorious organ and it adds to any service with music, and it can play very softly, but it also can play with great volume.

[Narrator] From its roots in England to its founding in New York, Trinity Cathedral reflects the enduring contributions of its parishioners across generations.

[Gardiner] The windows in the sanctuary here are all original to the building. Some of them are memorials to people, Rochester parishioners, others they simply were added to the building as the building was constructed. So, they're original, as are the clerestory windows up above and the trefoil windows up above in the ceiling. They're all original to the church. Elsewhere in the church, there are stained glass windows. There are some modern ones, but many of them are older windows that came from glass from Anglican churches that were decommissioned in England. You can see the difference in the windows. The old painted windows are really quite beautiful.

[organ playing]

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[Narrator] Passionate parishioners have been champions for Trinity Cathedral's upkeep and expansion since its consecration in 1873. 

[Gardiner] When they originally built the cathedral, they ran out of money and could not afford to build the bell tower. Fortunately for us, we had a member, Elizabeth Haynes, who paid for the construction of our new parish hall. But she still wanted that tower. The backstory is that she was the administrative assistant to the head of the Davenport Bank, and the two of them were good friends and he was a Roman Catholic and went to the St Anthony's Cathedral.

Of course, she went here. And her only provision when she built this tower was that it be higher than the tower at St. Anthony's. And to demonstrate that it was, she went up in a bucket lift up to the top and looked over, and yes, this tower is higher than St. Anthony's Tower.

(laugher)

[Narrator] Rising 131 feet above the cathedral, the spire and bell tower were completed in 1998, thanks to a devoted member determined to bring Bishop Lee's vision to life more than a century and a half after the laying of the first cornerstone.

[Gardiner] The congregation historically has been people who are deeply involved in the community and obviously deeply involved in this church. It's very moving to think of the numbers of people who sat in these pews. To just sit here and you hear the creaking and noises of an old building, and you think of all the people who've been through here in their lifetimes. It's very touching.

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