In 1897, Immigrants in Ansonia from what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire established one of the first parishes of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the United States. The first St. Peter and St. Paul Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was constructed in 1897-1898 on May Street. In 1910, the congregation purchased land at 105 Clifton Avenue, where the current church was built in 1915-1916. Plans for the church were sent by an architect from Lviv, Halychyna and the architectural firm of Johnson and Burns of Hartford was selected to complete the blueprints. The church’s roof is covered in red tiles and the domes are clad in copper. A major restoration of the building took place in 1987-1989.
Beacon Falls Congregational Church (1871)
The Beacon Falls Congregational Church was originally a Methodist Episcopal Church, founded in 1846. The first church building was built next to what is now Pines Bridge Cemetery. A small meeting house, it burned in a fire. After 1850, the church moved to another small building on Main Street, near Lebanon Brook. That structure later became an American Legion Hall and is now Beacon Falls Pizza. The current church on Wolfe Avenue, built on land donated by the Home Wollen Mill, was completed in 1871 and dedicated on January 11, 1872. The church became Congregational in 1919. A member of The United Church of Christ from 1957 to 2005, the Beacon Falls Congregational Church is now an independent Congregational Church.
Trinity Episcopal Church, Portland (1874)
Trinity Episcopal parish in Portland was first organized in 1788. There have been three church edifices. The first was built in 1790, but was never consecrated. The second was built in 1830-1832 and was consecrated in 1833. The chapel of the current church was first occupied in 1874, but the rest of the building was not completed and consecrated until 1882. The present brownstone church may incorporate part of the 1830 structure.
Church of the Holy Trinity, Middletown (1874)
The Church of the Holy Trinity in Middletown is an Episcopal church, built of local brownstone and designed in the Gothic Revival style by Henry Dudley. The first Anglican services in Middletown were conducted around 1730 and a parish, called Christ Church, was formally organized in 1750. The first church building was built in 1755 on South Green, followed by the second on Broad Street (now used as Russell Library) in 1834. Martha Mortimer Starr (1777-1848) bequeathed her land on Main Street to the parish on condition that it be renamed Church of the Holy Trinity. The name was changed in 1857 and the current church was built in 1870-1874 at 381 Main Street. Among the rectors of the church was Dr. Edward Campion Acheson, who served from 1892 to 1915 and was later bishop of Connecticut. His son, Dean Acheson, later served as Secretary of State in the administration of Harry S. Truman.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Southington (1892)
Episcopal services began to be held in private homes in Southington in the 1780s. The first church building was begun in 1791, but was not finished for many years. Many early members of the church were not dedicated Anglicans, but were Universalists who joined because of doctrinal disputes with the town’s Congregational church. As described by Heman R. Timlow in Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn. (1875):
It was a difficult work to build the house of worship, but it was more difficult to sustain service after it was built. It was a very plain building, and had Gothic windows to distinguish it from the “meeting house.” It stood where David P. Woodruff’s market now is. The original “proprietors” held possession of it, and for many years there were legal questions as to its rightful ownership. It was finally sold and converted into a store. In 1860 it was burned. […]
In 1828 the parish was united with that of St. Andrews, Meriden, then under the rectorship of Rev. James Keeler. Under the labors of this rector the parish gave signs of new life, it having thrown off entirely the Universalist element and established itself upon the doctrines of the Prayer Book. In 1829 the building was consecrated by Bishop Brownell. For a year or two there followed prosperity and harmony, but another secession took place in 1831 during the revivals that visited the town that year, and several of the leading members of the congregation became members of the Congregational and Baptist churches. Services were occasionally held by Rectors of adjacent parishes, and in this way a nominal existence was preserved. In 1840 the Unitarian movement absorbed most of the parish so that scarcely a remnant remained. […]
In 1862 an attempt was made to reorganize the church under the name of The Church of the Redeemer. The Rev. B. F. Cooley officiated for a year, and he was followed by Charles Allen, of Trinity College, as Lay Reader, who labored zealously for a year. The enterprise however did not succeed, and it was abandoned in 1864. Occasional services have since been held in the town by the Rev. Dr. Horton of Cheshire, and others.
In later years, the Episcopal church was again revived in Southington and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, at 145 Main Street, was built in 1892 in the Shingle style. A parish hall was added in 1899. It was considered a mission church, until becoming a “self-sustaining parish” by 1919. The church added a new parish house and classrooms in 1957.
Pleasant Valley United Methodist Church (1846)
The congregation of Pleasant Valley Methodist Church formed in 1838 and met in members’ homes until the church was built in 1846-1848. A Greek Revival building, it is located on Route 181 in Pleasant Valley, Barkhamsted. Additions to the church were built in 1899 and 1992.
Park Street Congregational Church (1871)
In 1867, Congregational services began to be held in East Bridgeport in the Bethesda Mission Chapel on East Washington Street. A church was formally organized the following year and in 1870-1871, Park Street Congregational Church was built at the corner of Park and Barnum Streets, fronting Washington Park. The Gothic Revival building was designed by architect Abram Skaats. The church‘s membership peaked in the 1930s and 1940s, but declined after World War II. In 1988, Park Street Congregational Church merged with Trinity United Church of Christ of Trumbull to form Unity Hill United Church of Christ, located at 364 White Plains Road in Trumbull. The former Park Street Congregational Church is now Calvary Temple Christian Center.
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