Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Gothic

New Haven City Hall (1861)

Located on Church Street, across from the Green, New Haven’s City Hall was one of America’s earliest High Victorian Gothic buildings. It was designed by Henry Austin and was completed in 1861, with the addition of a similar brownstone county court house building on the north side in 1871, designed by David R. Brown. The City Hall‘s clock tower was later removed, creating a truncated appearance, but the building was restored in 1976 with a rebuilt clock tower. More recently, after many years of considering alternatives for a new government center, the rear and north portions of the original building were demolished and replaced with new additions, while the front portion was maintained.

Yale Repertory Theatre (orig. Calvary Baptist Church) (1871)

The home of the Yale Repertory Theatre is located on Chapel Street in New Haven. Originally built as Calvary Baptist Church in 1871, the building’s steeple was removed in 1966 when it was deconsecrated and sold to become a theater. The church was designed by Rufus G. Russell, who had trained with Henry Austin.

Dwight Chapel (1842)

Originally constructed on Yale’s Old Campus in 1842-46 to serve as a library, Dwight Hall and Chapel was converted in 1931 to contain the Dwight Memorial Chapel, honoring Timothy Dwight. An early example of the Gothic Revival style, it was Yale’s first Gothic building and is currently Yale’s second oldest surviving building. It was designed by Henry Austin and in 1931, after the library had moved to a new building, its interior was remodeled by Charles Z. Klauder. The building is home to the organization known as Dwight Hall (formerly the Yale University Christian Association), which will be moving to a different building in 2010.

In front of the Chapel is a statue of former Yale President Theodore Dwight Woolsey.

Trinity Episcopal Church, New Haven (1814)

Trinity Episcopal Church on the Green, located just southwest of Center Church, is the third church comprising New Haven Green‘s carefully laid out plan of the Federal Period. At the time of its construction (1813-1814), Trinity Church, designed by Ithiel Town, was the most unusual of the three, as it was one of the very first three Gothic-style buildings in the United States. Town’s design has been significantly altered over the years, with the original wooden upper section of the tower being replaced by the current stone structure (and a pyramid, removed in 1930). Other changes include the addition of a chancel in 1884, by Henry Congdon. Town also designed Hartford’s first Gothic Episcopal church, which is now Chist Church Cathedral.

Samuel Nye House (1875)

The Samuel Nye House, on Prospect Street in Willimantic, was built around 1875. It is a Gothic Revival house, notable for its two stone chimneys.

St. Joseph Church, Bristol (1925)

The first St. Joseph Church, Bristol’s first Catholic church, was built in 1855. This original wood building, enlarged in 1879, was eventually replaced by the current granite church, dedicated in 1925. Designed by Joseph A. Jackson in the English Tudor Gothic style (or Perpendicular Gothic), the church is on Queen Street, facing Federal Hill Green.

Simsbury United Methodist Church (1909)

Simsbury’s first Methodist church was built in 1840, centrally located in town on Hopmeadow Street. Remodeled and rededicated in 1882, it was eventually demolished in 1908 to make way for a new church building, designed in the Gothic style by architect George Keller. Built of red sandstone with terracotta roofs, the new church still followed the basic plan he had used for his early Grace Episcopal Church in Windsor, but now in a more mature style. Red sandstone had been used in the earlier church as well, although, in the period in between, he had used granite for the Elizabeth and Northam Memorial Chapels. The Simsbury church has a square castellated tower, similar to one in his design for the Ansonia Library. The Simsbury United Methodist Church also features stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany.