St. Anthony Church, Ansonia (1915)

Lithuanians in Ansonia sought to establish an ethnic parish when they incorporated a lodge of the Lithuanian Society of St. Anthony in 1907. Bishop John J. Nilan of the Diocese of Hartford rebuffed their request, insisting that the Lithuanians remain within Assumption parish. The Lithuanians began to build a church in 1912 without episcopal approval, hoping that the bishop would reverse his decision, but he maintained his previous position. In 1915, an appeal directly to Rome succeeded and St. Anthony parish was given sanction by the Pope to operate as an independent parish. St. Anthony’s Church was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day 1915 by Father Matthew Pankus of Bridgeport.

Update: In 2015, the church celebrated its 100th anniversary and then closed.

St. Augustine Cathedral (1868)

The first Catholic church in Fairfield County was Saint James the Apostle Church, a brick building built on the corner of Arch Street and Washington Avenue in Bridgeport in 1843. The church eventually became too crowded and the cornerstone of a new church was laid in 1866. Built of stone from the abandoned Pequonnock quarry in Black Rock, the new church, renamed Saint Augustine’s, was dedicated on on Saint Patrick’s Day, 1868. The church became the cathedral of the Diocese of Bridgeport, when that diocese was founded in 1953. The cathedral went through a major renovation in 2003-2004.

Emanuel Lutheran Church, Hartford (1924)

And yet another church in Hartford founded by Scandinavian immigrants is Emanuel Lutheran Church, founded in Frog Hollow in 1889 as the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Emanuel Church (Svenska Evangelisk Lutherska Emanuelförsamlingen). The church’s first building, built in 1892 at the corner of Babcock and Russ Streets, is now the George J. Rau-Arthur F. Locke Post 8 of the American Legion. In 1913, the basement of a new church on Capitol Avenue was finished and the first services in the completed structure were held in 1924.

Our Saviour’s Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church (1891)

Another Scandinavian church in Frog Hollow in Hartford was built in 1891 at the corner of Russ Street and Babcock Street. Our Saviour’s Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized in 1883, making it the oldest Lutheran Church in continuous existence in the Hartford area. It was located in Frog Hollow until the 1950s, when the congregation moved to West Hartford Road in Newington. In 1967, the church merged with Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, which had been founded by Swedish immigrants in 1945. The church, unified under the name Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, is located at 1655 Main Street in Newington. The old church building in Hartford is now home to Iglesia Adventista Del 7mo Dia.

Swedish Zion Congregational Church (1892)

Over a century ago, Hartford’s Frog Hollow neighborhood was home to a significant Scandinavian immigrant community. A number of churches were established at the time. I’ve previously featured the Swedish Bethel Baptist Church on this site (it’s also mentioned in Tour 9 in my new book, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut). Nearby, at 87 Russ Street, at the corner of Hungerford Street, is another church built by a group of Swedes. In 1883, Rev. C. J. Erixon, a home missionary for the Congregational Church, began preaching to Swedish immigrants in Hartford. The group became known as the Swedish Evangelical Free Church. In 1889, L. W. A. Bjorkman became the first permanent pastor and the congregation took a new name, the Swedish Evangelical Zion Church (Svenska Evangeliska Zion-kongregationalförsamlingen i Hartford), also known as the Swedish Zion Congregational Church. In 1890, the church became part of the local branch of the Evangelical Covenant Church, which was largely a Swedish denomination at the time. From 1892 to 1960, the church was located at the building in Frog Hollow. In 1938, the church changed its name to the Covenant Congregational Church and in 1960 the church moved to West Hartford, where most of its membership resided. The Hartford church building was sold to the Hartford Full Gospel Church (the address is now 77 Hungerford Street).

Henry C. Dwight School (1885)

To celebrate the release of my new book this week, A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut, I’ll be featuring Hartford buildings. The Henry C. Dwight School, at 585 Wethersfield Avenue, consists of two attached structures. The earlier one (image above) was built in about 1885 and is a polychromatic High Victorian Gothic building designed by Jacob Bachmeyer. In 1901, a larger addition (see below) in the Renaissance Revival style was constructed, which more than doubled the size of the school. Known as the Wethersfield Avenue School, it was later renamed for Henry C. Dwight, wool merchant, president of Mechanics Savings Bank, mayor of Hartford in 1890–92 and chairman of Hartford’s South School District. (more…)

Trinity Episcopal Church, Portland (1874)

Trinity Episcopal parish in Portland was first organized in 1788. There have been three church edifices. The first was built in 1790, but was never consecrated. The second was built in 1830-1832 and was consecrated in 1833. The chapel of the current church was first occupied in 1874, but the rest of the building was not completed and consecrated until 1882. The present brownstone church may incorporate part of the 1830 structure.