The building which now serves as Simsbury’s third Town Hall was built in 1907 as Simsbury High School. The building’s design, by Edward Hapgood of Hartford, is believed to follow that of Homerton College, Cambridge University. When the high school, moved to a new building in the 1960s, the old building became Horace Belden Elementary School. It was renovated in 1993-1994 to become Simsbury Town Hall.
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. (more…)
Founded in 1738 in the village of Stratfield, St. John’s Episcopal Church moved to the Borough of Bridgeport when the latter was incorporated in 1801. A wooden church was built at the corner of State and Broad Streets, followed by a larger stone church, at Broad and Cannon Streets, built in 1838. The current church, at the corner of Park and Fairfield Avenues, was constructed in 1873-1875, with a chapel wing on the north side added in 1886-1888. The church was designed by James Renwick, Jr., the architect of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. The church’s tower was completed 1893, when the building, by then free of debt, was formally dedicated. The interior has been remodeled at different times over the years. (more…)
On East Peak in the Hanging Hills in Meriden stands an Castle Craig, an observation tower in Hubbard Park. Dedicated on October 29, 1900, the tower was given to the people of Meriden by Walter Hubbard, president of the Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Company, who also donated the park that bears his name. Constructed of trap rock, Castle Craig is 32 feet high and its base is 58 feet in circumference. There are different theories as to the inspiration for Castle Craig. Hubbard may have been inspired by a Norman French tower, a Turkish Tower on the Danube, or an ancient fortification (or maybe the 1814 Craigellachie Bridge?) in Craigelachie, Scotland. Castle Craig was rededicated on April 22, 1986 after restoration work was completed. A 90 ft. flag pole was erected near the tower in 1987.
The first Catholic church to be built in the North End of Bridgeport was St. Patrick’s Church. It began with a basement church designed by James Murphy of Providence, RI. The cornerstone for the Upper Church, designed by Dwyer and McMahon of Hartford, was laid in 1910 and the Dedication Mass for the completed edifice was offered in November of 1913 (see pdf, page 4). St. Patrick’s Parish merged with St. Augustine’s Parish in 2011 to form the new Cathedral Parish.
Trinity Episcopal Church in Tariffville, Simsbury was founded in 1848 and began holding worship services in Mitchelson Hall on Elm Street in Tariffville. Trinity purchased a former Presbyterian Church in 1856, but this building was seized to make way for railroad tracks in 1871. The present church, designed by Henry C. Dudley, was constructed on Church Street in 1872-1873. A parish house was built behind the church in 1932 and a modern classroom and office wing was added in 1968.
German Catholic immigrants settling in Meriden first attended Mass at St. Rose of Lima Church and later joined with French-Canadians to establish St. Laurent Church in 1880. A decade later, their numbers were large enough that an independent parish was organized. The first St. Mary parish church, built of wood on Church Street, was dedicated on December 6, 1891. Bishop John J. Nilan blessed the cornerstone of a new church on October 27, 1912 and dedicated the completed Gothic church on October 19, 1913. The church continues to have a German-American congregation residing in Meriden and other nearby towns. Its parishioners share their clergy with St. Joseph’s Church in Meriden. St. Mary School opened in 1894 and closed in 2006.
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