Trinity College , in Lynedoch Street, Woodlands Hill, Glasgow , Scotland, was opened as the Glasgow Free Church College in 1857 . A memorial to open a theology college had been presented in 1855 to the General Assembly of the Free Church by a group of Glasgow laymen, lead by Dr William Clark of Wester Moffat who had offered £20,000 if a like amount was subscribed by others. Teaching began on 4 November 1856 in a building in Thistle Street, Glasgow prior to the opening of the college building. Following the union of The Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church in 1900 , it became the Glasgow College of the United Free Church of Scotland .
The college and an adjoining church were built to the designs of Charles Wilson , a Glasgow architect who planned the layout and design of the terraces in the area. The church was destroyed by fire in 1903 and, when the congregation was eventually united with another, the shell of the church was acquired for an extension to the college, opening in 1911 . The college thereafter consisted of both twin towers of the church and the campanile of the college. The extension made possible a Library Hall at the level of the former gallery of the church and an Assembly Hall and two classrooms at ground level.
Following the union of the United Free Church and the Church of Scotland in 1929 the college adopted the name Trinity College and further rationalisation took place in the training and teaching of ministers. In Glasgow the outcome, in operation from 1935 , was to combine the teaching strength of the University of Glasgow's Faculty of Divinity and that of the college to make an enlarged Faculty of Divinity. It was decided that each day the earlier classes be held in the university and the later ones in the college. During most of the 1939-1945 World War the college was occupied by the Royal Pay Corps and all classes were held in the University, classes resuming at the college in the autumn of 1946 .
By 1970 it had been decided that the college could not be adapted economically for the needs of the Faculty. By Easter 1973 all classes formerly held in the college had been transferred to the University campus, and later that year the Church of Scotland resolved that Trinity College should be disposed of and the library offered to the University of Glasgow . The college building was sold and subsequently transformed into residential accommodation.
From the guide to the Records of Trinity College, college of theology, Glasgow, Scotland, 1857-1991, (Glasgow University Archive Services)
