First Church of Christ Scientist, Hartford (1956)

First Church of Christ Scientist, Hartford

Two students of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, began conducting Sunday services in homes in Hartford in 1890 and a year later secured a hall for services. A Christian Science Society was formed in 1896 and was incorporated in 1898 as the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Hartford. A church home was built on Farmington Avenue in 1908. Services began in the current church, a Colonial Revival building at 235 Scarborough Street, in 1956. Hartford also has a Second Church of Christ Scientist, which for several years used the former Park Congregational Church on Asylum Street, then had a church home on Lafayette Street, and is today based at the Christian Science Reading Room at 24 Central Row in downtown Hartford. Former Hartford resident Mark Twain was a critic of Christian Science and his view of Mary Baker Eddy was very hostile. In 1907 he published a book, Christian Science, which collected his essays on the subject.

First Church of Christ, Congregational, Glastonbury (1939)

First Church of Christ, Congregational, Glastonbury

The First Church of Christ, Congregational in Glastonbury has had five church buildings since it was established in the 1690s. As related in Vol. 2 of the Memorial History of Hartford County (1886), the first meeting house was erected on the Green in 1693:

It was enlarged in 1706, and stood until destroyed by fire on the night of Dec. 9, 1734. The second meeting-house, by compromise between the north and south, and by the decision of the General Court, was erected on the main street, about one fourth of a mile south of the Green, standing half in the street, just north of the old Moseley tavern. […] It was used as a church for more than a century, having been built in 1735. On the division of the society in 1836, by the establishment of the society at South Glastonbury, it was abandoned as a meeting-house, and during the year 1837 was demolished. […] By the division of the First Society in 1836, and the dilapidation of its ancient edifice, a new meeting-house became a necessity for the mother organization, and it was so voted in society’s meeting January 17, 1837. This was located farther to the north, on land which in 1640 was owned by the Rev. Henry Smith, the first settled minister of Wethersfield (from 1641 to 1648), and later (in 1684) by Samuel Hale, the ancestor of the Hale family. It was built in 1837, under the supervision of David Hubbard, Josiah B. Holmes, George Plummer, Benjamin Hale, and Ralph Carter, as a building committee. It was a very tasteful edifice, with tower, bell, and clock, especially attractive after its enlargement and thorough repair in 1858, which made it a most fitting and beautiful sanctuary. It was burned on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 23, 1866. The church which takes its place was erected in the year following, and with its graceful spire (rebuilt in 1880) forms a prominent object in the views of the valley.

This last church was destroyed in the hurricane of 1938, when the steeple crashed down into the sanctuary. The current church was built the following year on the same site.

Charles Merriman House (1750)

Charles Merriman House

The Charles Merriman House, located at 75 Woodbury Road in Watertown, across from the Taft School, was built in the eighteenth century and been much altered and enlarged over the years. The oldest part of the house dates to 1750. In 1812, Charles Merriam added the large Federal-style front section. Merriam, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, was a tailor (and later merchant) whose shop and store was located just up the street, on what is now Hamilton Avenue. According to New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial, Volume IV (1914):

Charles, son of Amasa Merriman, was born at Wallingford, Connecticut, August 20, 1762. He served in the revolution, enlisting as a drummer in 1775, when he was thirteen years of age. He was present at the battle of Bunker Hill, and was at Yorktown when Cornwallis surrendered. He finally became drum major and served throughout the entire war. While he was in the army he also made clothes for the men, and it is said that when he married, his only worldly possession was a tailor’s goose. When the war was ended, he and his boy chum, a lad named Punderson, walked to the latter’s home in Connecticut, and there Merriman met his future wife, Anna Punderson, a sister of his army chum. He settled at Watertown, Connecticut, where he commenced business as a tailor. He was, however, compelled to give up this trade on account of ill health, and he then “rode post” from New Haven to Suffield for four years, after which he made a voyage to the West Indies. He then became engaged in business as a merchant in Watertown, where he continued until his death, which occurred August 26, 1829. He was of a genial nature, and was distinguished for decision of character and stern integrity.

Merriam was also a Mason. As related in the History of Ancient Westbury and Present Watertown from its Settlement to 1907 (1907):

The first Masonic Lodge was held December 22, 1790. […] This meeting was held at Landlord (David) Turner’s, where they continued to meet until March 11, 1793, when they removed to the Charles Merriman house (opposite Taft’s School), now occupied by Miss Mary Merriman. Brother Merriman was “to find the Lodge with house room, wood, candles, etc. for the term of one year, and to have for his reward twelve dollars and find the Lodge with Liquor at Prime cost in New York, allowing freight and transportation.”

A rear addition to the house was built circa 1890-1910. The house was altered in the Colonial Revival style in 1912, when the columned south portico was added.

Gridley-Munson House (1849)

Gridley-Munson House

Having built a store north of the Congregational Church in Watertown in 1846, Amos Gridley built his Italianate-style house next door (10 Deforest Street) in 1849. Gridley eventually went bankrupt. The house had other owners. In 1912, James Woolson remodeled it in the colonial revival style, adding the porches on the side of the house (the front portico is original). The house was later owned by William J. Munson, who donated the house and land to the town in 1928 in memory of his wife. The house now contains the Board of Education offices and the land, known as the Marion B. Munson Memorial Park, is joined to the Watertown Public Green.