Medieval beauty in 'Suck City'

Boston's famed Trinity Church, on Copley Square.

“Trinity Park lies directly across from the {Boston Public} library, Trinity Church rising like a medieval thought amidst the glass and steel towers'' {around Copley Square in Boston's Back Bay}.''

-- From Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, by Nick Flynn

Trinity Church and its parish house were designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, and built from 1872 to 1877, when the complex was consecrated. Trinity Church established Richardson's reputation. It is the archetype of the Richardsonian Romanesque style, with its  clay roof, polychromy, rough stone, heavy arches and a massive tower. This style was soon adopted for many public buildings, and some churches, across the United States.

The church is considered one of the greatest buildings in America.

The church was  structurally damaged in the ‘70s by construction of  the 60-story skyscraper at 200 Clarendon St., first called the John Hancock Tower, and still colloquially known as The Hancock.  Among other problems with the tower were that a few panes of glass  fell from it until engineering flaws were fixed. The flaws added the thrill of possible decapitation of visitors to Copley Square – one of the grandest public spaces in the Western Hemisphere.

The structural damage to the church was fully fixed, with the cost borne by the developers.