Welcome to Trinity College, the private liberal arts college perched here in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded as Washington College in 1823 and opened by Bishop Thomas Brownell in 1824 to nine male students, this place began amid the vigorous protest of Yale alumni. A 14-acre site was chosen, at the time about a half-mile from the city of Hartford.
The banker Charles Sigourney was instrumental in helping to establish the college and served as Secretary of the Board of Trustees, even corresponding with notable figures such as Thomas Jefferson on matters related to the college. In 1845 the institution was renamed Trinity College. The original campus consisted of two Greek Revival buildings: one that housed a chapel, library, and lecture rooms, and the other that served as a dormitory for the male students.
Today the college has evolved — coeducational since 1969, enrolling 2,235 students, offering 41 majors and 28 interdisciplinary minors, and belonging to the New England Small College Athletic Conference — but the echoes of those first buildings remain in the plan and the stories. Picture those two original Greek Revival buildings still anchoring this 14-acre campus where it all began.