Grace & St. Peters Episcopal Church, Hamden (1821)

The oldest church building in Hamden is Grace Episcopal Church, built in 1821 and attributed to the architect builder David Hoadley. The church’s first meeting house was built in 1790, in Mount Carmel, on what is today Whitney Avenue. The current church once had a large steeple, built in 1847 and designed by Henry Austin, which blew down in 1915. The present steeple was built in 1921. The church was moved in 1966 from one side of Dixwell Avenue to the opposite side. In the 1990s, Grace Church merged with St. Peter’s on the Hill, founded in 1958. The united church is now known as Grace & St. Peters Episcopal Church.

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Milford (1851)

The first Anglican church in Milford, named St. George’s, was built from 1769 to 1772. The church was not consecrated, but rather “set apart” and dedicated for Divine Service in 1775, because Connecticut did not yet have a Bishop. In 1849, the original wooden church was demolished and replaced by the current brownstone church, designed by Frank Wills, a prominent architect and Gothic Revival churches and author of Ancient English Ecclesiastical Architecture and its Principles, Applied to the Wants of the Church at the Present Day (1850). The church was completed in 1851 and consecrated as St. Peter’s Church. The rededication of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in 1981 was followed by a disastrous flood in June 1982, after which the organ and parts of the church and parish hall had to be rebuilt.

Christ Episcopal Church, Stratford (1858)

Built in 1857-1858, the current Christ Episcopal Church in Stratford was preceded by two earlier church buildings. The first was built in 1724 and was replaced by the second, built in 1743, which stood just to the north of the current church, which was designed by architect Henry Dudley. Christ Church is the oldest parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, tracing its origins to 1707. In 1972, the interior of the church was reconfigured to its present arrangement.

Plymouth Building, Milford (1952)

During the Great Awakening in 1741, the membership of the First Congregational Church in Milford was split, with the more conservative members forming Second Church, under the leadership of Job Prudden, the great grandson of Peter Prudden, the first pastor of First Church. A new Greek Revival structure, called Plymouth Church, was constructed for the second congregation. The two Congregational churches then continued separately, but physically close to each other, for 185 years, until 1926, when they were reunited. The old Plymouth Church was then used as a playhouse until it was razed in 1951 and replaced the following year by the Plymouth Building, which houses a chapel and parish hall.

First United Church of Christ Congregational, Milford (1824)

The First Church of Christ in Milford was established in New Haven in 1639 by a group of settlers led by Rev. Peter Prudden. They had already acquired land in Wepawaug, where they would shortly settle and establish the new parish and colony of Milford. The first meeting house was built in 1641 and was replaced by a second structure in 1727-1728. The current church, was built in 1824. Designed by David Hoadley, it has similarities to two earlier churches he designed: United Church on the Green in New Haven and Avon Congregational Church. A division in church membership during the Great Awakening in 1741 led to the errection of the Second Church (Plymouth Church). The two churches reunited in 1961 as the First United Church of Christ (Congregational).

Mount Carmel Congregational Church (1840)

Mount Carmel Congregational Church is located on Whitney Avenue, in the Mount Carmel neighborhood of Hamden. The parish, established in 1758, had previously worshiped in a meetinghouse which stood a little north of the current church. That building was first used in 1761, but was not fully completed until after the Revolution. After it burned down, the present Greek Revival-style church was constructed in 1840, after several years of debate on where to build it.