Statue of Phillips Brooks

The memorial to Phillips Brooks stands before Trinity Church, distinguished by a marble niche that holds bronze figures of the bishop and a hooded Christ. Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens designed the work to depict Brooks in a preaching gesture, his hands raised to emphasize his words. The congregation commissioned the memorial in eighteen ninety-three, shortly after the death of their longtime rector. Saint-Gaudens worked on the project for years, but he died before the piece reached completion. His assistants, Frances Grimes, Elsie Ward, and Henry Hering, finished the work, which finally arrived at the square in nineteen ten.