Immanuel Lutheran Church, Bristol (1907)

German immigrants founded the German Lutheran Church in Bristol in 1892 (or 1894). A church was built on School Street, on the south bank of the Pequabuck River, in 1896. A split in the church soon emerged: one group, which would affiliate with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, constructed Immanuel Lutheran Church in 1907 at 154 Meadow Street. The other group built Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church on Judd Street (the original church building has since been replaced) in 1906. School buildings were constructed adjacent to Immanuel Lutheran Church in 1925 and 1963.

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Naugatuck (1875)

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church on the Green in Naugatuck is a High Victorian Gothic structure, built in 1875 and designed by David R. Brown, who had been an apprentice of Henry Austin. St. Michael’s Parish was formed in 1786 and a church was built in Millville in 1803. That structure was moved to what would become the center of town in 1832, to land donated by innkeeper Daniel Beecher, who also provided land next door for the Congregational Church and established Naugatuck’s Green, thereby providing the then dispersed communities of Naugatuck with an institutional center. The relocated original church was in use until 1875, when it was sold to the Naugatuck school board and removed to make way for the current church.

Russell Library, Middletown (1834)

Middletown’s Russell Library, at the corner of Broad and Court Streets, was originally built in 1834 as Christ Episcopal Church, a Greek Revival building designed by Barzallai D. Sage. The church later constructed a new building in 1874 on Main Street and was renamed the Church of the Holy Trinity. In 1873, the original church building was sold to Frances Ann Russell, widow of Samuel Russell, who had it completely remodeled in the Gothic style and donated it as a public library. Originally opened in 1876, the Library has had a number of additions over the years: the Hubbard wing in 1930; a new Children’s Library in 1973 in what had been the First Federal Saving and Loan Association of Meriden; and a major expansion in 1983, which connected the various library buildings and created the inner courtyard.

South Park Methodist Church (1875)

The former South Park Methodist Episcopal Church, facing South Green in Hartford, was built in 1875. In 1886, the Boardman Chapel was added to the rear of the church, but has since been removed. In 1982, South Park Methodist Church merged with the United Methodist Church on Farmington Avenue. The 1875 South Green church was purchased by South Park Inn, Inc., which renovated the building and opened in in 1984 as an emergency homeless shelter.

A Former Church on Market Street in Hartford (1855)

The only surviving nineteenth-century building on Market Street in Hartford is a former church building at no. 125. It was built in 1855 as St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, a mission to the immigrants who once lived on Hartford’s East Side. In 1880, it was sold and became the German Lutheran Church of the Reformation. In 1898, it became St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church, which served the neighborhood’s Italian-American population. In 1958, St. Anthony’s merged with St. Patrick’s Church and the former St. Anthony’s Church building became a Catholic information center. Today, it is used by Catholic Charities Migration and Refugee Services. The church no longer has its original steps up to what was once the front door.

At the church’s northeast corner is an eighteenth-century grave, protected by a deed restriction. As described in Commemorative Exercises of the First church of Christ in Hartford, at its Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary (1883), “The monument of Dr. Norman Morison, who died in 1761, and was buried in his own garden, still stands in front of St. Paul’s church on Market street, with that of another of his family.” Dr. Norman Morrison (1690-1761) had a property that stretched to Main Street. His house there was later moved to Trumbull Street.

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, New Britain (1922)

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in New Britain began in 1836 and the first church building was located on East Main Street. This small wooden structure, later relocated to become St. Mary’s Schoolhouse, was succeeded by a more elaborate wood second church, built in 1848 on the corner of West Main and Washington Streets. Enlarged in 1859, it was replaced by the current granite church, built in 1921 and consecrated the following year. The church has stained glass windows that were originally in the second church building, as well as ones commissioned from the studio of William Morris.