St. Rose Catholic Parish, located in the Burnside section of East Hartford, was established in 1920. The parish‘s first church was a Quonset hut on Church Street, situated between the current church (33 Church Street) and Burnside Avenue. A new church was dedicated on June 22, 1924. [see also Mike Sheridan, “St. Rose’s Church Parishioners Pitch In To Renovate Building,” Hartford Courant, July 28, 1974]. (more…)
The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church, in the village of Centerbrook in Essex, was founded in 1898. The congregation erected their original church building, next to the Falls River millpond on Main Street, in 1907-1908. Services continued to be held in Swedish until the late 1940s. The church was destroyed by fire in the early hours of March 21, 1975. A new Trinity Lutheran Church was soon rebuilt on the same site, 109 Main Street. After the fire, the congregation had investigated the old building’s cornerstone to see if something had been sealed inside by the Swedish immigrant founders of the church. Nothing was found there, but then the great-grandson of the man who had laid the original foundation shared the story, handed down to him, that there had been indeed been a box of artifacts placed in the foundation. A new search in the wall behind the cornerstone revealed a copper box, containing a historical account of the church’s founding in Swedish, coins, a 1907 Swedish almanac and other documents. The box was resealed with other items added by the congregation in a new container and placed in the new church’s cornerstone (see Emily Sigler, “Artifacts Going Back Into Church Walls,” Hartford Courant, May 25, 1976). In 2005, the church completed a renovation and expansion project that almost completely rebuilt the structure and added 1,600 square feet on its east side. A new altar was built as an extension with windows providing views of the neighboring pond and river.
As related in An Historic Record and Pictorial Description of the Town of Meriden, Connecticut AKA A Century of Meriden (1906):
A[l]though the present attractive edifice of All Saints’ Protestant Episcopal Church, was not occupied for services until Ash Wednesday, 1893, some eight years or more previous it became evident that the erection of a church was definitely contemplated for that section of Meriden. The first service was held in the dwelling house, 273 West Main street on December 13, 1885[.]
A women’s sewing circle began raising money to build a church. Their funds were augmented by a bequest of $10,000 by Mrs. Phoebe A. Hallam, in honor of her late husband, the Rev. R. A. Hallam, D. D., at one time rector of St. Andrews Church in Meriden. All Saints Memorial Church was built at 215 West Main Street and consecrated on November 17, 1893. In more recent years, as the parish faced declining attendance, they began meeting at Immanuel Lutheran Church on Hanover Street. The old church building on West Main Street was sold in 2009 and bought by Rock of Salvation Church (Roca De Salvacion).
Trinity Episcopal Church, in the Nichols section of Trumbull, was organized in 1848. The original church was located at the corner of Huntington Turnpike and Jerusalem Hill Road. In 1939, the church was moved further north when the Merritt Parkway was constructed. The old church was replaced by the current one, at 1734 Huntington Turnpike, in 1965.
The Methodist Church in the historic village of Nichols in Trumbull began holding services in an old schoolhouse in 1828. A church building, facing Nichols Green, was dedicated on December 12, 1848. The building was enlarged and altered in 1905, 1960 and 1962. The current Nichols United Methodist Church, at 35 Shelton Road, replaced the earlier structure in 1981.
In the 1870s, Italian immigrants began settling in the northwest corner of Meriden. For many years they attended existing Catholic churches in the city, but soon wanted to found their own parish. The Diocese of Hartford established Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in 1894. The first parish church was a wooden building on Goodwill Avenue. The current church, located at 109 Goodwill Avenue, was dedicated on February 16, 1936. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School was established in 1944 after the parish purchased the Nathan Hale Public School from the city of Meriden. In recent years, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and St. Laurent Parishes in Meriden shared a priest. Earlier this year, as part of a reorganization throughout the Archdiocese of Hartford, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, St. Laurent and three other parishes merged to form the new Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish, based at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church.
On the campus of Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford is the Seymour St. John Chapel, built in 1924. Designed by noted collegiate and ecclesiastical architect Ralph Adams Cram, it was originally named St. Andrew Chapel. In 1998, it was renamed in honor of Rev. Seymour St. John (1912-2006), who served as the school’s headmaster from 1947 to 1973. Over a decade ago the Chapel underwent a major renovation. In addition to repairs and updates to the building, the clock tower’s 10-bell Meneely Bell Co. Chime was also extensively restored and reconnected to the Chapel’s original Seth Thomas clock.
