Riverton Congregational Church (1843)

The Congregational Society in Riverton was formed in 1842. Its members first sought to purchase the Episcopal Church building, constructed in 1829, whose trustees were in financial difficulties at the time. When the negotiations proved unsuccessful, the congregation constructed its own church edifice in 1843 on Robertsville Road, a wood-framed Greek Revival-style structure. Built by Willard S. Wetmore of Winsted, it was an exact copy of the Baptist Church in Canton, built in 1807.

Capt. William Clift House (1838)

At 193 High Street in Mystic stands a house that began as a Greek Revival-style three-bay gable-front home, but was much expanded in later years with large Queen Anne-style addition with a tower. The early section of the house was built in 1838 by Captain William Clift (1805-1882), a Mystic ship captain. The house stayed in the Clift family until 1918 and in 1939 it was deeded to the Mystic Home. Since 1976, it has been owned by Noank Baptist Group Homes. Called High Street House, it provides therapeutic services for six young women, ages 14-18, who are transitioning back to their families from more secure facilities.

Rev. John Bates Ballard House (1840)

At 24 Linwood Avenue in Colchester, next to the Cragin Memorial Library, is a historic house which is now home to the Colchester Historical Society. Built around 1840 by Reverend John Bates Ballard, a Baptist minister, it is transitional between the Greek Revival and Italianate styles. The house remained in the Ballard family until 1908, when it was bequeathed to the Colchester Borough Baptist Church for use as a parsonage. After the Baptist congregation merged with the Colchester Federated Church in 1949, the house passed through various owners. By the 1990s, it was in a dilapidated state, but was saved with grant money and funds from the Colchester Historical Society (founded in 1963). It is now a museum of the town’s history.

Vernon United Methodist Church (1834)

The church at 401 Hartford Turnpike in Vernon, now home to the Vernon United Methodist Church, was originally located in Bolton. As written in A Historical Sketch of Bolton, Connecticut (1920), by Samuel Morgan Alvord,

The Methodist Church began its work at an early date in Bolton with the first camp meeting ever held in a New England town. The noted itinerant preacher Lorenzo Dow was the leader and great crowds were attracted to his meetings which were held May 30 to June 3, 1805, near the Andover town line directly east of the South District School house. […] The first Methodist Church was built at Quarryville in 1834 near the present edifice. This building was sold to the Universalists in 1851 and moved some distance west and a new church was built the following year.

The Universalists moved the church nearer to Bolton Lake, where it remained until the 1860s, when the Methodist Church in Vernon began. As described in A Century of Vernon, Connecticut, 1808-1908 (1911):

The Vernon Methodist Episcopal Church started from small beginnings, as most of the Methodist churches do, from class meetings. This was in the early sixties. The meetings were held mostly in the Dobsonville schoolhouse and the increasing numbers demanded preachers and the society was supplied by students from Wesleyan University at Middletown. One of the men was Rev. W. W. Bowdish, who at present is district superintendent in the New York Evangelist conference. About 1865 the congregation had increased to such numbers that a house of worship became imperative and the church at Bolton was purchased and moved to Vernon, cut in two and lengthened and is the building now used for worship. Somewhat later the building was improved and a belfry added with a fine bell installed, mainly by the generosity of S. S. Talcott, a prosperous manufacturer, who for many years was the motive power of the society.

An addition to the church was completed in 1989. The church‘s current steeple is not the original.

Portuguese Holy Ghost Society and Club of Stonington (1836)

Since 1929, the Portuguese Holy Ghost Society and Club of Stonington has used the house at 26 Main Street as its club building. Every year, the club celebrates the Azorean Holy Ghost Festival, a traditional feast that goes back to Queen Isabel of Portugal (1271-1336), also known as Elizabeth, who devoted herself to helping the poor and feeding the famine-stricken Portuguese people. She was canonized by Pope Urban VIII in 1625. The house was built in 1836 by Courtlandt Palmer (1800-1874), first president of the Stonington & Providence Railroad, and it remained in his family until 1913.