Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, in front of you at 31 South Duke Street in Lancaster, was dedicated in 1766. This congregation was formed in 1730, and the present edifice was completed and dedicated in 1766, making it one of the oldest churches in the commonwealth. Before you, the original church building hosted a session for an Indian treaty in 1762 — a moment preserved in the church’s long record.
Pause and consider the cemetery: here are interred the remains of Thomas Wharton (1778) and Governor Thomas Mifflin (1800). Both men are commemorated by a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania historical marker at Trinity Church; the marker, which remembers Wharton and Mifflin as the first and last Governors and Presidents of Pennsylvania under the 1776 State Constitution, was dedicated in 1975 and sits on Duke Street. As you stand, you are part of that unbroken line linking 1730 through 1766, 1776, and into the marker’s 1975 dedication.
Notice the building in front of you, then the gravestones nearby, and the historical marker along Duke Street that ties Wharton and Mifflin to this unbroken story.