Woodward Chapel (1924)

Sunday, May 12th, 2013 Posted in Churches, Romanesque Revival, Watertown | No Comments »

Former Christ Church, Watertown

The earliest Episcopal church building in Westbury (now Watertown) was built in 1765. Called Christ Church, it was replaced by a new church in 1794 and then by a third building, located on the street called The Green, built in 1854-1855. That church was replaced on the same site by a new edifice, which still stands today, built in 1924 and designed by Allen & Collens to resemble an English parish church. The church was expanded in 1960 with the addition of a wing for a parish hall. In 2003, Christ Church became one of the “Connecticut Six,” parishes that clashed with Connecticut Bishop Andrew D. Smith over support for the naming of V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay Episcopal priest, as New Hampshire’s bishop. In 2007, the entire congregation severed its ties with the national Episcopal Church and left its church on The Green to become New Hope Anglican Church. In 2010 the former Christ Church was purchased by the nearby Taft School and was renamed Woodward Chapel.

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St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, East Haddam (1890)

Sunday, April 28th, 2013 Posted in Churches, East Haddam, Shingle Style, Victorian Eclectic | No Comments »

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, East Haddam (1890)

An Episcopal Society in East Haddam was formed in 1791 by members of the First Congregational Church, who perhaps left that congregation because of plans to build a new meeting house too far from the Connecticut River landings. In 1795, the Society built the first St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on a hill overlooking the East Haddam river landings. The current church building, at 31 Main Street, was consecrated in 1890. It was built on land offered to the church by Judge Julius Attwood. The church was constructed in an eclectic Victorian mode in which the Shingle style predominates. The church’s bell, acquired in 1834-1835, came from a Spanish monastery and bears an inscription with the date 815. After the congregation moved to the current church, the bell sat on a wall near the church until a bell tower was completed in 1904.

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St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Thompsonville (1859)

Sunday, April 7th, 2013 Posted in Churches, Enfield, Gothic | No Comments »

St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Enfield

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, at 28 Prospect Street in Thompsonville, Enfield, was built in 1859. According to the Memorial History of Hartford County, Vol. II (1886): “The Episcopal Church of Thompsonville was organized as a mission in 1851, and as St. Andrew’s Parish in 1855, and is gathering to itself an increasing number of adherents.”

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St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Guilford (1856)

Sunday, March 3rd, 2013 Posted in Churches, Fairfield, Gothic | No Comments »

St. Paul's Church

A group of Fairfield Episcopalians met in 1853 to form what became St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The church was built in 1855-1856 on what had been the previous site of two successive Fairfield County jails (the first was burnt by the British in 1779 and the second by a prisoner in 1852). The church expanded several times: in 1891 the parish built an addition for its Sunday school and Women’s Auxiliary and in 1928 started a project that produced a transept, expanded the chancel, added a chapel adjoining the chancel and built what is now the parish hall. A new wing, dedicated in 1959, was built on land where the Old Academy had stood (it was moved to its current location on the Green in 1958).

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St. James’ Episcopal Church, Glastonbury (1859)

Sunday, February 24th, 2013 Posted in Churches, Glastonbury, Gothic | No Comments »

Episcopal Church Glastonbury

St. James’ Episcopal Church was established in North Glastonbury in 1857 and the church at 2584 Main Street was built in 1859. The interior was gutted by fire in 1904, but the church was able to reopen for services within one year. The building was enlarged in 1965 and in 1978 a parcel of town redevelopment land was purchased to become a parking lot and major repairs were made to the church and parish house (the latter built in 1956).

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Christ Episcopal Church, Bethlehem (1835)

Tuesday, December 25th, 2012 Posted in Bethlehem, Churches, Gothic | No Comments »

Merry Christmas! For Christmas we’re featuring a church in Bethlehem… Bethlehem, Connecticut! Pictured above is Christ Episcopal Church. The earliest records of the Episcopal Society of Bethlem go back to 1807. Work on building the church was begun in 1829 and it was consecrated on September 23, 1835. The church was enlarged, by Waterbury architect R. W. Hill, in 1870-1871.

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Christ Church, New Haven (1898)

Sunday, October 14th, 2012 Posted in Churches, Gothic, New Haven | No Comments »

Christ Church in New Haven is an Episcopal Church founded in 1854 as a mission of Trinity Church. While Trinity Church is located in the center of town on New Haven Green, the first Christ Church was erected on the edge of town, in an area called Poverty Square near the almshouse and the town farm. Christ Church became a parish in 1856 and today continues the Anglo-Catholic worship and dedication to the city’s poor and dispossessed that have been hallmarks of the parish since its founding. The parish’s current Gothic church, at 84 Broadway, was built in 1898. It was designed by Henry Vaughan and the interior has intricate mahogany carvings by the Bavarian-born sculptor Johannes Kirchmayer. The church‘s stone tower is modeled on that of Magdalen College, Oxford. Read the rest of this entry »

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