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"Nothing is so really new as that which is old," and it were not strange if many who are familiar with the present beautiful edifice of Trinity Church, and even with its predecessor, the embodiment of Bishop Hopkins's genius, were yet ignorant, or at best vague, regarding the first edifice commonly known as the "Old Round Church." This was a small brick building, octagonal in shape, located on the triangular lot bounded by Wood Street, Liberty Avenue, and Sixth Avenue, for which property four hundred dollars were paid. The corner-stone was laid July 1, 1805, but the church was never consecrated, and no bishop visited Pittsburgh until Bishop White came in 1825. To defray the indebtedness of the church we find that the expedient of a lottery was resorted to. In the Pittsburgh Gazette for March of 1808, Anthony Beelen advertised tickets for sale in the Trinity Church lottery at his shop on Front Street, now First Avenue; highest prize ten thousand dollars; tickets then selling for a dollar and a half. This was an approved means of raising money in those days, and was in accord with the prevailing moral sentiment.

On September 4, 1805, a perpetual charter was secured from Governor Thomas McKean, constituting "the Reverend John Taylor the present minister of the said church, Presley Nevill[e] and Samuel Roberts the present wardens of the said church and Nathaniel Irish, Joseph Barker, Jeremiah Barker, Andrew [Nathaniel] Richardson, Nathaniel Bedford, Oliver Ormsby, George McGunnegle, George Robinson, Robert Magee, Alexander McLaughlin, William Cecil and Joseph Davis the present vestrymen of the said church