Colonial Revival - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Grace Lutheran Church, Hartford (1951)

Grace Lutheran Church, at 46 Woodland Street in Hartford, is the descendant of three Lutheran churches that once existed in the city. One was the German Lutheran Church of the Reformation, which was founded in 1880. It was first located on Market Street in the former St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, later to become St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church. The German Lutheran Church moved to a new building on Charter Oak Avenue in 1898. Another Lutheran church founded by German immigrants was the German Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church, established in 1894, which had its church building at the corner of Russ and Babcock Streets. In 1916, these two churches, both founded by German immigrants, merged, retaining the name of Trinity Lutheran Church. In 1906, St. Paul’s English Lutheran Church was established. For a time it used the German Lutheran Church on Charter Oak Avenue, but soon moved to its own church building at the corner of Park Street and Park Terrace. In 1943, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church also merged with Trinity Lutheran Church. The united church then took the new name of Grace Lutheran Church. Finding its church edifice at Russ and Babcock Streets to be too small for the enlarged membership, the church acquired land at the corner of Woodland and Niles Streets in 1945. Construction of a new church building was approved in 1948 and work began in 1950. The church was dedicated on January 14, 1951. It was designed by Bessell (Wesley S.) and Matz of New York.

Wilfred X. Johnson House (1928)

At 206 Tower Avenue is a house constructed in 1928. It was the home of Wilfred Xavier Johnson (b. 1920) from 1966 until his death in 1972. Johnson’s family came north from Georgia in 1925 and settled in Hartford. Johnson worked as a “runner” (messenger) after school for the Hartford National Bank. After World War II, in which he served as dental technician, Johnson returned to work for the bank. In 1955 he was promoted to teller, the first African-American to hold the position in the state. He held that position until his death. In 1958, Wilfred X. Johnson became the first black candidate to be endorsed by the Democratic Party in Connecticut. He served four terms as the first black representative in the state assembly. His wife, Gertrude Johnson (b. 1927), was also active in city politics. She served as treasurer of the Young Democrats in 1957.

First Church of Christ Scientist, Hartford (1956)

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)

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)

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.