United Congregational Church of Tolland (1838)

In 1719, Tolland‘s first settlers decided to build a meeting house. This simple initial structure, first used in 1723, was never entirely completed. A larger building, with a steeple and bell, was later constructed at the south end of Tolland Green. First used in 1755, it was later suprceeded by the current building, located on the west side of the Green and dedicated on October 25, 1838. In 1893, adapting to changing styles, typical Victorian-era alterations were made to the interior of the church. This included replacing the pained glass windows with stained glass. In 1977, the church was again remodeled to its original appearance and the stained glass was removed. A wing was also added at that time to the south side of the church. Declining membership in the both the Congregational and Lee Methodist churches in Tolland led to their merger as the Federated Church of Tolland in 1920. The Lee Methodist Church was dissolved in 1959 ad the following year the Federated Church was renamed the United Congregational Church of Tolland.

Roger Sherman Place (1775)

The house at 247 Main Street South in Woodbury was built circa 1775 and is known as the Roger Sherman Place. This Woodbury Roger Sherman is not the famous Roger Sherman, but probably a relative. The house looks to have been much altered in the Greek Revival style in later years.

Update (8-9-2015): The 1775 portion of the house is actually the ell and the main section was built later, probably c. 1820, when the property was transferred from Matthew Minor, Jr. to Rev. Samuel R. Andrew, pastor of the First Congregational Church from 1817 to 1846.

Trap Falls Schoolhouse (1872)

The Trap Falls School is a former one-room schoolhouse located at the Shelton History Center complex. Built in 1872, it originally stood at the corner of Huntington Street and Trap Fall Road in Shelton. It was later acquired by the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company, which constructed the nearby Trap Falls Reservoir and used the school building as a storage shed. The company donated it to the Shelton Historical Society in 1971.

Black Rock School (1860)

The Black Rock School in Killingworth is a one-room schoolhouse built around 1860. In the mid-nineteenth century, it was one of Killingworth’s eight district schoolhouses, which were in use until 1949. Originally located on Route 148, the school was later moved by the Killingworth Historical Society to its current address, on town property, at Route 81 and Recycle Way, where it is now a museum. The Society also owns the Union district school on Roast Meat Hill Road and recently accepted the donation of the Pine Orchard School, which has also been moved from Route 148 to town property, in this case, Parmelee Farm, where it will eventually be rebuilt.

Newtown Meeting House (1812)

Newtown’s first meeting house was built in 1720 on Main Street, where the flagpole stands today. In 1792, this building was moved 132 feet to the middle of West Street. As explained in Newtown’s History and Historian, Ezra Levan Johnson (1917):

Nothing more appears on the society minutes about the meeting house, either for its adornment or repairs, until 1792, when the Church of England people having the consent of the town to build a church for public worship on the ground where the town house was standing, provided they would remove the Town house to some other site, without expense to the town. The meeting house standing near to. and in front of, the Town house made an objection to putting the Church of England house there without removing the meeting house also, and it was proposed to them that their house be removed to the opposite side of the north and south road

The meeting house was replaced with a new one in 1812, which was improved over the years. Quoting from the same book as above:

During the Rev. Jason Atwater’s ministry, between 1845 and 1852, the exterior of the building was very much improved, the belfry was closed in, a new steeple was built, the building newly covered and painted. Twelve hundred dollars were spent in renovating the exterior and in 1852 the basement was fitted up, the main floor raised to its present level, [and] new seats and a pulpit were provided for the audience room

By 1873, the meeting house looked much as it does today. In 1988, the Newtown Congregational Church moved to a new building and sold the old meeting house to the town. The Heritage Preservation Trust of Newtown, Inc. then restored and now maintains the Meeting House, which serves as a place for concerts, meetings, weddings and other events.

St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, New Canaan (1833)

St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in New Canaan was originally built as St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. The Anglican church in New Canaan originally met in a building on West Road, deeded to “professors of the Church of England” by a wealthy landowner in 1764. This was replaced by a new Episcopal church, built in 1833-1834 on God’s Acre in the center of New Canaan. The church (it was initially painted brown, but later painted white), continued as an Episcopal church until the current St. Mark’s was built in 1959-1961 on Oenoke Ridge. In 1962, the old church was acquired by the Board of American Missions of the Augustana Lutheran Church for a new Lutheran mission congregation, organized the following year as St. Michael’s Lutheran Church. That same year, St. Michael’s gave the adjacent Ludlow House, which had been included with the church property, to the New Canaan Historical Society in exchange for nearly an acre of land to be used for additional parking.