Greek Revival - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

First Congregational Church of Cromwell (1840)

Middletown’s Second or North Ecclesiastical Society was incorporated in 1703 in the community known as “Middletown Upper Houses,” now the Town of Cromwell. A minister was settled in 1715 and the congregation had their first meeting house on Pleasant Street. This was succeeded by a larger second meeting house, built in 1735-1736 on the town green. When Rev. Zebulon Crocker was pastor, the congregation undertook several ambitious building projects, constructing an Academy (1834), Parsonage (1835) and the third meeting house (1840), all designed in the Greek Revival style. The foundation stones of the church were dragged by volunteers across the ice on the Connecticut River from the Portland brownstone quarries. The architecture of the church was influenced by the Greek Revival of the old Middletown Court House, designed by Town and Davis. The upper tier of the steeple was lost in the 1938 hurricane and replaced in 1976. (more…)

Union Baptist Church, Mystic (1829)

Located prominently on Baptist Hill in Mystic is the Union Baptist Church, which is actually two different church buildings that were eventually combined. The origins of the church date back to 1764, with revival services held in Groton in 1764 during the Great Awakening. Groton’s Second Baptist Church was established the following year in Fort Hill. By 1825, the village of West Mystic in Groton was being developed. According to Groton, Conn. 1705-1905, by Charles Rathbone Stark, “The need of better facilities for those on the banks of the Mystic River led a number of public-spirited men to build a house to be used for the benefit of all denominations, the pastors of the various churches rotating in occupancy of its pulpit. The house was built in 1829 and by reason of the large number of sea-faring men contributing to its erection it was called the Mariners Free Church.” The architect of the new church was Deacon Erastus Gallup of Ledyard. Over time, the other denominations built their own churches in Mystic, leaving the Third Baptist Church, founded in 1831 by members of the First Baptist Church, the only group still occupying the Mariners’ Church. Meanwhile, the Second Baptist Church had moved from Fort Hill to Mystic, building a church on High Street in 1845. In 1861, the Second and Third Churches joined to form Union Baptist Church. The Second Church’s building was moved up High Street and joined to the rear of the former Mariners’ Church. The original steeple was lost during the Hurricane of 1938 and the Church was without a steeple until a new one, with a carillon, was built in 1969.

First Congregational Church of Darien (1837)

Congregational worship services in what is now the town of Darien were originally conducted in private homes starting in 1668. One such home was the Bates-Scofield House, now owned by the Darien Historical Society. At that time the community was still under the authority of the First Church in Stamford, but meetings for worship independent of Stamford began to be held in the 1730s. The Middlesex Ecclesiastical Society was officially organized in 1744, with its first minister, Moses Mather, who would remain in the pulpit for sixty-four years. The first meetinghouse was built in 1740 on the King’s Highway. Rev. Mather was a patriot during the Revolutionary War and, as described in Lossing’s Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution (1859), “On Sunday, the 22d of July [1781], the church was surrounded by a party of Tories, under Captain Frost, just as the congregation were singing the first tune. Dr. Mather and the men of the congregation were taken to the banks of the Sound, thrust into boats, and conveyed across to Lloyd’s Neck, on Long Island, whence they were carried to New York and placed in the Provost Jail. Some died there.” Rev. Mather and most of the prisoners were eventually released. Middlesex Parish, established in 1737, remained a part of the Town of Stamford until Darien became a separate town in 1820. A new and larger brick meetinghouse, was built adjacent to the original 1837 and a bell was installed in 1841. Additional church history can be read in a pdf file on the church website.

The Charles Culver House (1832)

Built on Washington Street in New London in 1832, the Charles Culver House was the first of many to be constructed in its neighborhood by John Bishop. In 1804, Culver had owned a ropewalk adjacent to his home. When this business burned in 1834, he sold the property to a group of investors, led by John Bishop and Jonathan Starr, Jr., who opened a residential street, named Starr Street after the C. Starr and Company Soap and Candle Factory.

Edwin Fitch House (1836)

The Fitch House is a Greek Revival home in Mansfield Center, built in 1836, which is now a bed & breakfast. The house was built by the architect and builder, Col. Edwin Fitch, who was hoping to impress his father-in-law, Dr. Jabez Adams and launch his career. Fitch later designed the Second Congregational Church in Coventry. Bankrupt by 1843, Fitch sold half of the house to Edmund Golding, who bought the entire house in 1848. Golding, who died in 1854, and Lewis D. Brown, who bought the house in 1865, were both Mansfield silk manufacturers. In 1906, the house was acquired by Carrie Amidon Havens, who later married Oliver Perry, a descendant of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. They enlarged the house, adding wings with porches on either side. The property also has two connected English-style historic barns.

Whale Oil Row (1835)

Whale Oil Row is a row of four similar Greek Revival houses on Huntington Street in New London. They each have a portico with Ionic columns supporting a triangular Greek pediment with a semicircular window. The houses were built between 1835 and 1845 on speculation by Ezra Chappel. The original owners included two whaling ship owners, a merchant and a physician. Because the wealth of three of these owners derived from the whaling industry, the houses became known as “Whale Oil Row.”

See below for images of each of the four houses. (more…)

Second Randolph Please House (1832)

Around 1832, Randolph Please built his second home in Middletown, across College Street from his first home. This newer building has a classic Greek Revival temple-front. In 1916, it was remodeled to become a church. Today, it is Middletown’s First Church of Christ, Scientist.