Center Congregational Church, Torrington (1867)

Center Congregational Church, at 155 Main Street in Torrington, was originally known as the Third Congregational Church of Torrington. It was established in what was then known as Wolcottville, a village that later became the center of Torrington. As related in The Torrington Register Souvenir Edition. An Illustrated and Descriptive Exposition of Torrington, Connecticut, 1897:

The Third Congregational Church is so named, not as many strangers suppose because there are two others in the borough, but because it is the third Congregational church formed in the town, the one in West Torrington being the oldest and the one in Torringford being the next in age. The Torringford church was formed because of the deep swamp which its people had to traverse to get to the First Church. The third came into being in later times because the petitioners alleged that they must either ascend a hill of 630 feet to go to Torringford, or one-half as high to go to the First Church. The building of the First Church was then up on the hills toward Goshen. A debt of gratitude is due to Capt. Uri Taylor, who gave the land and built thereon a Congregational meeting-house before the church was organized. Later on, he added to his gift a parsonage and lot. The ecclesiastical society was formed Dec. 3, 1829, and the Church was organized July 11, 1832, with twenty-nine members. This was at a time when the population of the village numbered about 500. The meeting-house built in 1828 was remodeled in 1844, by running a floor under the gallery. The present building of stone was erected in 1866[-1867] at the cost of great sacrifice on the part of the members. The Chapel was built in 1880.

The church was expanded to its present size in 1900 and was renamed Center Congregational Church. The church was burned by arsonists in January 1979. The interior was destroyed, but the granite walls survived. The church was restored and reopened in October 1980.

First Congregational Church of Meriden (1879)

The First Congregational Church of Meriden had its origins in the 1720s, when people in the northern section of Wallingford began holding services in their homes during the winters. As related in the History of New Haven County, Vol. I (1892):

On the 9th of May, 1728, the inhabitants living in the above sections petitioned the governor and the general court to be established as a village or a parish, which prayer was granted and the new parish called Meriden. The new society flourished and having a successful ecclesiastical government soon longed for its own civil administration. This privilege, however, was not granted until 1806

The first meeting house had already been constructed in 1727 at the corner of Ann Street and Dryden Drive. This was followed by a new meeting house, built on Broad Street in 1755. This was in turn replaced, at the same location, by a larger one in 1830. A split occurred in 1848, as described in A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County, Volume 1 (1918):

Prosperity and population had come to Meriden in the period just before that, and the church had so increased its membership that it felt the need of a new and larger building. This was erected, in 1846, on Colony Street, half a mile from the old site. But something arose which caused a difference of opinion among the members. Most likely the then familiar question of the abolition of slavery had something to do with it. At any rate, something like half a hundred members withdrew and formed the Center Church. The old building on Broad Street was vacant, and they secured possession of it. There they have remained and worshipped ever since—they and the new worshippers who have come in the changing process of seven decades.

The 1846 building continued in use by the First Congregational Church. It was replaced by the current one, at 62 Colony Street, in 1879. The church was renovated in the 1950s, when the south-side portico was removed. Although there were plans to erect a steeple, it was never built.

Washington Park Church, Bridgeport (1883)

The church at the corner of Barnum and Noble avenues (235 Barnum Avenue) in Bridgeport was built in 1883 as the Washington Park Methodist Episcopal Church. The brick Gothic church with elaborate terra cotta trim was designed by Lawrence B. Valk of New York. Organized in 1853, Park Church was the first church in East Bridgeport. Today, the building is Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church. This parish was founded in 1950 and, the following year, acquired a church building and rectory on Grant Street. An adjoining building was purchased in 1958 to become the parish school, but in 1966, the parish was notified by the state that their property was required for the building of a hospital. In 1970, therefore, the parishioners voted to purchase the former Methodist church on Barnum Avenue to become their new home.

First Congregational Church, Hebron (1883)

Hebron was incorporated as a town in 1708. The community’s religious services were held in private homes before a meeting house was constructed. There was intense debate in 1716 concerning where to built it, either north of the center village or on the Green. Eventually, a site on the Green was selected. The building was soon erected, although it was not fully finished in 1723-1724. Agitation developed over the formation of separate parishes and in 1747 the Connecticut General Court removed sections of Hebron to become parts of two new towns: the northeastern section becoming part of Andover and the western section part of Marlborough. The northwest corner of town remained part of Hebron, but was set off as a distinct ecclesiastical society, called now the Gilead Congregational Church, which held its first meeting in 1748. F. Clarence Bissell has related (in an address for Hebron’s Bicentennial in 1908):

Returning again to the situation of the town about the time that it was divided into religious societies; the first meeting house was in a ruinous condition, and there was much difference of opinion as to the location of a new one. But the necessity for a new one was emphasized by the burning of the old. This occurred Oct. 8, 1747 and was caused by an incendiary hired for that purpose, a half witted young man, who was afterwards prosecuted and committed to jail for the crime. During the year in which the old meeting house was burned there were held ten society meetings regarding a new one. It was finally voted to build a new house 60 feet by 48 feet and 25 foot posts, on the place where the old house stood. The new house was built in 1748 arid it contained some timbers that were already hewed for the addition for the first house, and saved from the fire. Some of these same timbers were afterwards used in building the new church in 1828, the building which many of us remember as standing until the fire of 1882.

That fire was described by Cyrus H. Pendleton (again at the Bicentennial):

April 17, 1882, a fire broke out upon the roof of a building, the lower story of which was occupied by Lucien H. Leonard as a store, his family residing in the story above. The fire started from sparks from the chimney. This building, known as the Hendee Store, stood just west of the Congregational Church, and with it was burned, the church and four other buildings on the north side of the Green, and the schoolhouse and two other buildings on the south side. The church and schoolhouse were rebuilt the same year, and two of the dwellings soon after.

The current First Congregational Church building was dedicated on May 1, 1883.

Timothy Wadsworth Stanley House (1860)

The Gothic Revival mansion at 1 Hillside Place in New Britain was built in 1859-1860 for Timothy Wadsworth Stanley, a successful businessman and state legislator. With his three brothers, Stanley had founded the Stanley Rule and Level Company in the 1850’s, which would much later become part of the Stanley Tool Works, founded by another brother. In 1866, Stanley became the first president of the Union Manufacturing Company. He was also vice-president and later president of the New Britain Savings Bank. His house was originally surrounded by a four-acre estate, designed by the landscape architect Jacob Weidenmann.

St. James Episcopal Church, Haddam (1873)

St. James Episcopal Church is located at the intersection of Killingworth and Ponsett roads in Haddam. A Carpenter Gothic building, Saint James’s was constructed between 1871 and 1873. The church was organized by Rev. William Clark Knowles, who had begun a Sunday School in his home on Hubbard Road in 1861 and held the first service of the Ponsett Episcopal Church around 1866. For thirty-six years, Rev. Knowles served as pastor of both St. James’s and Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Killingworth. A resident of the Haddam village of Ponsett until his death in 1933, at the age of 92, Rev. Knowles was the author of By Gone Days of Ponsett, published in 1914.

Alsop-Weeks House (1780)

At 202 Washington Street in Middletown is a house that has gone through a number of stylistic changes over two centuries. Known as the Wetmore-Weeks or Alsop-Weeks House, it was built around 1780 by Chauncey Whittlesey, wealthy merchant and supporter of the American Revolution. The house was later owned by Charles R. Alsop, developer of the now rare Alsop Pocket percussion revolver. Alsop, who also served as mayor of Middletown (1843-1846) and state senator (1855), made alterations to the house around 1840, remodeling the Georgian-style building in the then-popular Gothic Revival style. Later in the nineteenth century, the Atwater family remodeled the interior of the house in the neo-Federal style. They sold it to Frank B. Weeks, who had just served as governor of Connecticut from 1909 to 1911. After his term, Weeks became a trustee of Wesleyan and bequeathed the house to the University at his death in 1935. The house has since been a student residence. A rear addition was constructed in 1966.