Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Gothic

First Congregational Church, New London (1850)

UPDATE (1/26/24): Sadly, the towering steeple and roof of the church collapsed on January 25, 2024 causing great damage to the building.

For Christmas we feature a church with a very long history! New London‘s First Congregational Church was originally formed in 1642 in Gloucester, on Cape Ann in Massachusetts, under the leadership of Rev. Richard Blinman. This congregation moved to the new town of Pequot, settled in 1646 and later renamed New London. The first house of worship in New London was a large barn, with a meeting house being constructed around 1655 and replaced by a new church in the early 1680s. The third church, built in 1698, was was struck by lightning in 1735. Building a replacement was considered, but arguments over where to construct it led to the decision to repair and enlarge the existing edifice. A new church was eventually built in 1786 on Zion’s Hill. This was replaced by the current granite church in 1850, designed in the Gothic style by the Prague-born, New York-based architect, Leopold Eidlitz. The bell was installed in 1876. Merry Christmas from Historic Buildings of Connecticut!

Stoddard-Sherwood House (1878)

Located in Newington Junction, the Stoddard-Sherwood House was built for John Rozwell Stoddard. He was superintendent for the Russell & Irwin Manufacturing Company and then manager for the Capewell Horseshoe Nail Company. Stoddard and his wife, Lila Marguerite Steele, had seven children and one of them, Lila Steele Stoddard Sherwood, who had married Charles Sherwood, lived in the house after her father’s death in 1936.

Cathedral of Saint Patrick, Norwich (1879)

The Catholic Cathedral of Saint Patrick Parish, on Broadway in Norwich, was built during the 1870s. The new Cathedral was built because of the crowded conditions at Norwich’s first Catholic Church, St. Mary’s, which was built in 1845 and was the first Catholic Church in Connecticut on the East side of the Connecticut River. The Gothic-style Cathedral was designed by James Murphy of Providence, who was the brother-in-law of the famous church architect, Patrick Keely. The Cathedral was largely constructed by Norwich’s Irish residents. Ground breaking took place on Good Friday 1871 and the first mass was held in the completed building on St. Patrick’s Day, 1879. The Cathedral was extensively renovated in the 1950s.

St. John’s Episcopal Church, New Haven (1895)

At the intersection of Orange and Humphrey Streets in New Haven stands the very English Gothic-style St. John’s Episcopal Church. It was built in 1895 and designed by architect William Halsey Wood of New Jersey.

Union Baptist Church, Hartford (1871)

Union Baptist Church is one of the oldest black congregations in Hartford. In 1889, there was a split in church’s membership and, although both groups wished to retain the name of Union Baptist Church, one group had already claimed a charter before the other group arrived, so the latter group established itself as Shiloh Baptist Church. The English Gothic building which is today Union Baptist Church, at 1921 Main Street in the city’s North End, was built in 1871 and was originally the Memorial Church of St. Thomas, an Episcopal church built in honor of Bishop Thomas Church Brownell, the founder of Trinity College. By the 1920s, St. Thomas Church was facing diminishing attendance. St. Monica’s, a black Episcopal congregation, which had been meeting in a dilapidated church formerly used by Shiloh Baptist Church, was allowed to use the Parish Hall of St. Thomas Church. Eventually, in 1925, the church was offered to Union Baptist Church and St. Monica’s congregation moved to a smaller church, on Mather Street, which Union Baptist had erected in 1908 and was now vacating.

Leaders and members of Union Baptist Church made important contributions to the early civil rights movement: the Reverend John C. Jackson, who who became pastor in 1922, worked to open employment opportunities for African Americans and in 1943 helped establish the Connecticut Inter-Racial Commission, now the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. C. Edythe Taylor, a member of the church, was the first African American teacher in the Hartford public school system. The Union Baptist Church is on the Connecticut Freedom Trail. (more…)

St. Patrick’s Church, East Hampton (1897)

St. Patrick’s Church in East Hampton began as the Mission of East Hampton in 1857, with the first church building being constructed in 1869. The current church, located half a mile east of the first building, was dedicated in 1897 and a rectory was built in 1901. Originally served by St. Mary’s Church in Portland, St. Patrick Parish was set apart from Portland in 1900.

Charles A. Converse House (1870)

The Col. Charles A. Converse House on Washington Street in Norwich is a striking Gothic Revival villa, deigned by Henry Austin of New Haven. Built around 1870, it was first owned by Col. Converse, who was one of the founders of Hopkins and Allen, a major gun manufacturing company in Norwich. In 1907, the Converse Art Gallery, an addition to the Slater Memorial Museum donated by Col. Converse, opened to the public. The Converse Homestead property also has a barn built around the same time as the house.