Attractions

In Trinity

In recent years, the provincial government and concerned individuals have taken a keen interest in preserving Trinity, and it's clearly benefiting from a revival in which many homes have been preserved and a good number made over as bed-and-breakfasts. Several buildings are open to the public as provincial historic sites, two others as local historical museums. Most are open mid-June to early October, then shuttered the remainder of the year. Allow about 3 hours to wander about and explore.

Days on which the popular historic pageant is held bring a flood tide of visitors to Trinity, making parking and rooms scarce and meals sometimes difficult to obtain. The village is also well worth seeing on nonpageant days, when a great quiet settles in.

Start your voyage into the past at the Trinity Interpretation Centre (tel. 709/464-2042) at the Tibbs House, open 10am to 5:30pm daily from mid-May through late September. (It's a bit tricky to find, since signs don't seem to be a priority. Follow the one-way road around the village and continue straight past the parish hall. Look on the left for the pale green home with the prominent gable.) Here you can purchase tickets, pick up a walking-tour map, and get oriented with a handful of history exhibits. Entry costs C$3 (US$2.70/£1.50) per adult. This ticket also admits you to the Lester-Garland property and the Hiscock House , which keep the same seasons and hours as the interpretation center.

A minute's walk away is the brick Lester-Garland Premises (tel. 709/464-2042), often the first stop on travelers' Trinity itineraries. Here you can learn about the traders and their times. This handsome Georgian-style building is a convincing replica (built in 1997) of one of the earlier structures, built in 1819. The original was occupied until 1847, when it was abandoned and began to deteriorate. It was torn down (much to the horror of local historians) in the 1960s, but parts of the building hardware, including some doors and windows, were salvaged and warehoused until the rebuilding.

Next door is the Ryan Building, where a succession of the town's most prominent merchants kept shop. The grassy lots between these buildings and the water were once filled with warehouses, none of which survived. The Rising Tide Theatre (tel. 888/464-3377 or 709/464-3232) was architecturally styled after one of the warehouses (a good imagination is helpful in envisioning the others). This 255-seat theater is a good stop if you enjoy the arts and offers a surprisingly full card of dramatic productions from mid-June through the fall. Performances here are top-rate, and well worth the admission cost; that's remarkable in such a remote outpost.

A short walk away, just past the parish house, is the Hiscock House (tel. 709/464-2042), a handsome home where Emma Hiscock raised her children and kept a shop after the untimely death of her husband in a boating accident at age 39. The home has been restored to appear as it might have in 1910, and helpful guides fill in the details. Again, the combination Trinity ticket gets you in here for C$3 (US$2.70/£1.50) per adult; children under 13 enter for free.

The Trinity Historical Society Museum on Church Road (tel. 709/464-3599), in a late-19th-century home, contains more than 2,000 everyday artifacts that one might have seen in Trinity a century or more ago; it's open mid-June through mid-October, 10am to 5:30pm daily. The adjacent fire pump dates from 1811 and is intriguing.

Also nearby, the Green Family Forge Blacksmith Museum (on Church Rd., just beyond St. Paul's Anglican Church) -- operated by the museum folks -- will teach you about what was one of the essential local industries in the early 18th century. This current smithy was built about a century later, and used until 1955; in 1999, it was restored and began operating once more. The smith and museum are open the same season and hours as the museum.

Tours & Shows -- An entertaining way to learn about the village's history is from the summertime Trinity Pageant. Local actors lead a peripatetic audience through the streets, acting out episodes from Trinity's past. For dates and tickets, contact the innovative Rising Tide Theatre ; also check with the theater about performances throughout the summer, most depicting island episodes or themes. In the past, the cast staged their shows at impromptu venues around town (upstairs at the parish hall, in a field at the water's edge, on the front porch of a B&B, and the like).

Also recommended is the 2-hour historical walking tour of Trinity led daily at 10am by Kevin Toope (tel. 709/464-3723). Toope's family has been in the area for generations, and Kevin (a schoolteacher in St. John's most of the year) has put together an informed and entertaining tour of the village he knows so well. After a tutored loop around the winding streets, you'll come away with lots of fascinating facts and bits of color that help bring the town to life. The tours cost C$8 (US$7.20/£4) per adult, free for kids. (One tidbit you'll learn: Whatever happened to the family of one of the town's merchant princes, who owned practically everything but treated his employees with contempt? Historians have traced a single descendent: a derelict in London.)