Rare early view of the proposed design for Trinity Church, as proposed by Architect Frank Gills, drawn by G.W. Burton and lithographed by Michelin in San Francisco.

The Trinity Episcopal Church was organized in 1849, and first held services in a pre-fabricated corrugated iron building on Stockton Street. By 1852, the congregation, needing larger quarters, imported a new pre-fab iron church and set it up on Pine and Kearny Streets. In 1867, a truly grand church was built at Post and Powell Streets, on the north side of Union Square. In 1892 the congregation built a splendid stone church at Gough, where the congregation remains until today.

The on-line entry for the "Robert B. Honeyman, Jr. Collection of Early Californian and Western American Pictorial Material" notes that Francis Michelin was active circa 1852, C.W. Burton was active circa 1879 and that the print was made circa 1870?. As this was a proposal for the construction of the church, the two most probable dates would be circa 1852 or circa 1867, the date of the two earliest re-constructions of the church.

The view is exceedingly rare. We note an example offered for sale by Anderson Galleries in 1922, where it was listed as Rare.