Christ Church Tashua (1846)

Christ Church, the Episcopal parish in the Tashua area of Trumbull, was organized about 1760, by which time the residents had built a small wooden church. The parish began as a mission of Christ Church in Statford, the oldest Episcopal parish in Connecticut. In 1788, the parish voted to build a new church by subscription. As described in Vol. 2 of Samuel Orcutt’s A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City Bridgeport (1886), the church was proportioned

not to exceed 50 feet in length, and 34 in breadth, and 24 in height. Also to be 24 windows in said church, of six-by-eight glass, thirty panes in each window, exclusive of the arch. This edifice was located, apparently, on the north side of the highway, where it remained until the present one was erected. The same year it was voted to call the parish Trinity Church, and by that name it was known in the records for many years. In June, 1790, the church was so far advanced that by vote of the parish the pew spots were sold at public veendue, the buyers being obligated to pay the prices bid and build the pews in one year from the time of purchase. The pews were to be in uniform style, as they were in the North Fairfield meeting house. The purchase money was applied towards the expense of building the church. The pew spots, except two, were sold for $310.66. The square pews were sixteen in number, being the wall pews round the building. The chancel was on the north side, and there was a door in the opposite side and one also at the east and west ends. In the body of church there were long, open seats free to all. A tower and spire were built at the west entrance in 1823.

The erection of the current church was begun in 1846 and the building was consecrated on May 28, 1847. While there have been additions, the church remains an excellent and very well preserved example of the Carpenter Gothic style.

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Mystic (1867)

Begun as a mission in 1859, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Mystic was organized as a parish in 1865. That same year, the parish acquired land at what is now 15 Pearl Street for a church. The cornerstone was laid in 1866 and the first service was held on Christmas Morning, 1867. Once the church was free from its large construction debt of $9,000, the building was dedicated on St. Mark’s Day, April 25, 1873. An education wing was erected in 1962.

Fishtown Chapel (1889)

The Fishtown Chapel at Mystic Seaport was originally erected by the community of Fishtown in Mystic to serve as a place for Sunday School and prayer meetings in 1889. It took only three weeks to build. For a time around 1900 the Chapel served as a schoolhouse for Groton’s Ninth School District. It then remained unused for many decades until it was moved to Mystic Seaport in 1949. Restored, it was rededicated as a chapel in 1950. As seen in old postcards of the Chapel, it once had a steeple which has since been removed. (more…)

Manchester Armory (1927)

In 1923, the Connecticut General Assembly approved funding for an armory in Manchester to house the town’s National Guard units. A drill shed was soon erected at 330 Main Street, followed by the remainder of the building (the front facade of the head house) after additional funds were approved in 1925. Designed in a military Gothic style by the New London architectural firm of Payne and Keefe, the Manchester Armory represents a move away from the picturesque castellated Gothic armories that were built in Connecticut in the first two decades of the twentieth century towards a more streamlined and rigidly symmetrical form related to the emerging Art Deco style. Earlier this year the state sold the armory, which had become vacant, to private owners who plan to convert it into offices and an automotive restoration shop.

Yalesville United Methodist Church (1899)

In 1866, members of several Protestant denominations in the Yalesville section of Wallingford erected a small frame church known as the Union Church. Methodists and Baptists predominated in this mixed congregation. The following year the Methodists decided to become independent and purchased the Baptists’ share in the church for $3,428.61, with the aid of a donation from Charles Parker, a wealthy factory owner. A new First Methodist Church, now the Yalesville United Methodist Church, was erected at 8 New Place Street in 1899. A Church School addition was built in 1957.

Westerly-Pawcatuck Seventh-Day Adventist Church (1927)

The house at 39 Lester Avenue in Pawcatuck, Stonington was originally a church. It was built by the Westerly-Pawcatuck Seventh-Day Adventists, a congregation founded in Westerly, Rhode Island in 1912. By 1927 they had acquired the 0.05 acre property on Lester Avenue and built a small church. In the 1960s the dwindling congregation joined a larger church in New London. The Pawcatuck church remained vacant until 1978, when Charles and Deborah Hayden moved in and converted it into a residence. The old rope-and-pulley windows were replaced by the next owner, Andrea Carey, who moved in in 1983.