The first Methodist sermon preached in what is now the town of North Canaan was given in 1786 at the Lawrence Tavern (the Isaac Lawrence House on Elm Street). A Methodist church was erected in 1816 and remained in use until the current Canaan United Methodist Church was erected in 1868-1873. It is located at 2 Church Street, at the west end of Main Street where it divides into Church and West Main Streets. The original church building was sold to a farmer. The large stained glass window at the front of the church was installed in 1905. The church merged with the Falls Village Methodist Church in 1966. That church’s first structure, built in 1793, was the first building for Methodist worship erected in the New England states.
By the early nineteenth century, Hopevale, or Hope Valley, located in the Town of Hebron, was an active area for farming as well as manufacturing along the local streams. There were also camp meetings, held on the shores of Barber’s Pond, one of which in 1823 lasted for a full week of preaching. The earliest Methodist Churches in Hebron were one built c. 1805 on Burrows Hill and taken down in 1845 and the 1838 church on Hebron Green that later became the Town Hall. Another Methodist church was established in Hopeville, as related in the Souvenir History of the New England Southern Conference in Three Volumes (1897):
In the year 1849 the church property, situated in what was then called Hope Valley (now Hopevale), was deeded by David Chapman to the trustees in trust for the use of the Wesleyan Methodist Society, and the deed was recorded in the Hebron Town Records.
For some years thereafter that denomination sustained services until unable to do so longer on account of members dying or removing. For some years previous to the year 1881 preaching was sustained by the Methodist Episcopal denomination, but only at the rate of twelve Sabbaths per year, preachers coming from Colchester or Marlborough.
At the Willimantic Camp Meeting in the year 1881 a religious interest was started among the people of Hopevale. Soon afterwards Brother Kathan, laboring among the people, was rewarded by seeing a number converted. One of the results of this revival was an earnest desire to form a Methodist Episcopal Church in this place. Consequently, Sunday, October 10, 1881, Mr. Mitchell formally received into the church Mr. and Mrs. David Johnson and Mrs. Sarah Thompson, the only survivors of the Wesleyan Methodis Society, then living in Hopevale. He also received a number of others by letter and from probation, and baptized and received seven others on probation.
The church property was deeded to a board of trustees for the use of the Methodist episcopal Church February 3, 1882. and the deed recorded in the Hebron Land Records. In the spring of 1882 the church was repaired, painted, papered and a new bell, carpet, lamps, chairs and organ purchased. The church was rededicated September 3, 1882, by Presiding Elder H. D. Robinson.
Since the organization of the church, services have been held regularly, with the exception of three years, when it was closed for want of funds.
[. . .] The church membership has been small, never numbering more eleven by removals and deaths.
[. . .] The quaint Communion Service which was used in the old church is still in good condition, and is used at the present time in Communion Services. It is said that the first Camp Meeting held in Connecticut was held in a grove about one mile from this place.
As related in an historical address by Cyrus H. Pendleton, on the occasion of Hebron’s Bicentennial in 1908:
Of the subsequent history of this church I have been able to obtain scarcely anything definite. There would now seem to be in connection with it no regular church organization, and the trustees are now all residents of Colchester, and services are held in the church just sufficient to use up the income of a small fund bequeathed by Samuel Skinner, a former resident of Hebron, and a member of the Methodist Church on the green.
The church building was also used in the late nineteenth century by the Seventh Day Adventists. Adjacent to the church is a house (built c. 1790-1810), at 29 Reidy Hill Road, that once housed the Adventist school. The church, located at 21 Reidy Hill Road, is now known as the Hope Valley Church.
Episcopal services in the village of Farmington were first held in an old schoolhouse in 1873, when St. James’ Mission was established under the leadership of Rev. Edward R. Brown, Rector of Christ Church in Unionville, and Charles L. Whitman, a Farmington innkeeper. By late 1874, the mission had moved to the second floor of a grocery store and post office on Main Street near Mill Lane. Whitman died in 1886 and left money for the erection of a church. The mission raised additional funds and acquired land for the church on Mountain Road in 1897. The Arts & Crafts-style structure was designed and built by Henry Hall Mason, whose father, Charles S. Mason, was a strong supporter of the mission. Mason used local field stone in the construction and also made the church’s wooden altar and reading desk using wood from his own property. The first service in the new building was held in January 1899 and the church was consecrated five months later. The mission was formally recognized as St. James Parish in 1902. An addition to the rear was built in 1910 to provide a larger chancel and organ loft. Two further additions were a new parish house in 1938 and a parish hall, designed by Edgar T. Glass, in 1957. That same year, a belfry was also constructed.
At 40 Main Street in Bethel is a building known as the Second Meeting House. It was built in 1842 and was indeed the second meeting house to be erected by the First Congregational Church of Bethel. The first meeting house, built in 1760, had burned down. In 1865, a strong wind blew down the second meeting house’s steeple, which fell through the roof of the building. As related in James Montgomery Bailey’s History of Danbury (1896): “In the spring of 1865, during a gale, the house was injured by the falling of the spire, and having been repaired, was sold to the town and moved ten rods west of its former site.” In 1866, the church erected its third and current meeting house, located at 46 Main Street, where the first meeting house had once stood. After being sold to the town, the Second Meeting House served as Town Hall until 1939. Today, the building is the headquarters of the Bethel Historical Society, which rents out the hall. It is also the meeting place of Bethel VFW Post 935.
The building at 95 Tolland Green in Tolland was erected in 1880 as the Lee Methodist Church. It was the second Lee Methodist Church built on the site, replacing the earlier church, built in 1794. That building was moved back 200 feet and in later years was known as the “ole vaporatin’ house” where apples were dried. It was torn down after suffering damage in the Hurricane of 1938.
The Lee Methodist Church merged with the Tolland Congregational Church in 1920, forming the Federated Church of Tolland (now the United Congregational Church of Tolland). In 1959, the old 1880 church building was sold to the Tolland Grange #51. Formed in 1886, the grange had already been using the building for meetings since 1932. In addition to the Grange, other groups, such as the Boys Scouts, met in the building over the years. Before St. Matthew Catholic Church was built, the parish used the Grange Hall as its temporary home and celebrated the first Catholic mass in Tolland there on July 12, 1964. The Grange put the building up for sale in 2012 and it was sold the following year.
