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.

St. Thomas the Apostle Church (1951)

St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, established in November 1920, was the second Catholic parish in West Hartford. Early Masses were held in a portable wooden edifice, located at the southwest corner of Quaker Lane and Boulevard. A basement chapel at 872 Farmington Avenue was dedicated on November 7, 1926. Construction began in 1937 on St. Thomas the Apostle School, located next to the chapel on Dover Road. St. Thomas the Apostle Church was completed with the dedication of the upper church on September 16, 1951.

Trumbull Congregational Church (1899)

The Congregational Church in Trumbull was first established in 1730. Services were initially held at Pulpit Rock on White Plains Road. The first meeting house was built on the corner of White Plains Road and Unity Road. The congregation’s second meeting house was built in 1747 on what is now Church Hill Road, just west of where the Helen Plumb Building would be built in 1883. Over the years, the expanding road moved closer to the church and many a horse and wagon, coming down the hill on icy days, collided with the corner of the building. In 1842 a new church was erected on the same site, but located further back toward the Pequonnock River. A fire destroyed this building in 1898. The cornerstone for the current church, built at a new location at 3115 Reservoir Avenue, was laid on September 28, 1898 and the building was dedicated on on May 11, 1899. The church was constructed of stone quarried north of Beardsley Park.

St. Patrick’s Church, Mystic (1909)

The cornerstone of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, 35 East Main Street in Mystic, was laid on August 16, 1908 and the building was dedicated the following year. The parish had previously used a building on Church Street, purchased from the local Methodist church in 1870. The church on East Main has been altered in the years since it was first erected. The original Gothic entryway and tower have been replaced with less architecturally elaborate versions. A one-story parish hall was also added to the building. (more…)

Main Street Baptist Church, Meriden (1868)

The church at 22 Crown Street in Meriden was built in 1868 as the West Meriden Baptist Church, later renamed the Main Street Baptist Church. Established in 1860, the church had an earlier chapel on the same site. The present church building’s tower was removed in 1946 and in the 1950s the Connecticut Bank & Trust Company built a branch right in front of the building. In 1997 the Baptist Church closed and sold the building to Faith Center Church of God in Christ.

St. Mark the Evangelist Church (1945)

St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church, 467 South Quaker Lane in West Hartford, was dedicated on September 30, 1945. It replaced the original St. Mark Church on the site, which was destroyed by a fire of suspicious origin on June 24, 1944. Due to the scarciry of building materials during World War Two, that building had been a portable church, a narrow structure with a heating grate running through its center. St. Mark’s Parish Center was dedicated in 1971. As part of the Archdiocese of Hartford’s reorganization of parishes earlier this year, St. Mark’s merged with two other West Hartford parishes, St. Brigid and St. Helena, to form the new Saint Gianna Parish.